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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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I^rrhus. Frontispiece 

Pluto Carrying Off Proserpina. {See p. 19S, ) 





ALTEA\US' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY 
) 



HISTORY 



or 



PYRRMUS 



BY 



JACOB ABBOTT 



V/lTtl rORTY-riYE ILLUSTRATIONS^ 



Copyright 1900 by Henry Altemus Company 



PhlLADELPHIA 

HENRY ALTE/nUS COynPANY 




53134 

SEP 28 1900 

Cof^yn^M Mtry 

SECOND COPY. 
OKDtrt O'.VISION, 

OCT 16 1900 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Olympias and Antipater . 


PAGE 

. 13 


CHAPTER II. 
Cassander 


. 40 


CHAPTER III. 
Early Life op Pyrrhus . 


. 65 


CHAPTER IV. 
Wars in Maoedon 


. 87 


CHAPTER V. 
War in Italy . 


. 110 


CHAPTER VI. 
Negotiations 


. 133 


CHAPTER VII. 
The Sicilian Campaign 


. 159 


CHAPTER VIII. 

The Retreat from Italy . 


. 188 


CHAPTER IX. 
The Family of Lysimachus 


. 208 


CHAPTER X. 
The Reconquest of Macedon 

CHAPTER XI. 
Sparta .... 


. ' . .233 
. 247 


CHAPTER XII. 
The Last Campaign op Pyrrhi 


IS . . 266 



(v) 




Pyrrh 



Philip of Macedon. [Set p. IS. ) 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Pluto Carrying Off Proserpina 


Frontispiece, 


Philip of Macedon 


page vi 


Pyrrhus, King of Epirus 


. " X 


Headpiece, Chapter I. . 


. . '' 13 


Map of the Empire of Pyrrhus . 


facing '' 14 


Babylon . . . . 


. " 26 


A Macedonian Soldier . 


facing '' 36 


Tailpiec . . . . . 


. '' 39 


Headpiece, Chapter II. 


. '' 40 


Polysperchon's Army at Megalopoli 


3, facing '' 44 


Eurydice in Prison 


. '^ 57 


Assassination of Olympias 


,'' 64 


Headpiece, Chapter III. 


. " 65 


The Battle of Ipsiis . 


facing '' 74 


Demetrius .... 


^. '' 86 


Ptolemy .... 


. '' 86 


Headpiece, Chapter IV. 


. " 87 


Pyrrhus Slays Neoptolemus . 


facing '' 104 


Headpiece, Chapter V. 


. '' 110 


The Trophies 


. " 131 


Headpiece, Chapter YI. 


. " 133 


Destruction of Pyrrhus' Fleet 


facing '' 134 


The Elephant Concealed 


. ^' 144 


Boman Arms 


. '' 158 


Headpiece, Chapter YII. 


. '' 159 




(vii) 



Vlll ILLUSTRATIONS. 






The Macedonian Phalanx . . fac 


ing page 164 


The Assault .... 




'177 


Pyrrhus 




^187 


Headpiece, Chapter YIIT. . 




' 188 


Lycurgus Presents the Infant King, 


facing ' 


' 194 


Panic of the Elephants 




'207 


Headpiece, Chapter IX. 




' 208 


Pyrrhus and the Spartan Ambassadors, 


facing ' 


' 224 


The Fallen Elephant . 




' 231 


Seleucus 




' 232 


Lysimachus .... 




'232 


Headpiece, Chapter X. 




'233 


Greek Armor . . . . 




' 246 


Headpiece, Chapter XI. 




' 247 


Battle Between Acrotatus and the Gauls, 


facing ' 


'254 


Spartan Warriors 




' 265 


Headpiece, Chapter XII. 




'266 


Pyrrhus Repulsed from Sparta 


facing ' 


'274 


The Charge . . . • 




' 283 


Death of Pyrrhus 




' 300 







<^mmmm^.''.j''^'. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, after losing his 
throne, and regaining it by the help of the 
Ptolomies, extended his dominions by the 
addition of a portion of Macedonia, and then, 
at the invitation of a Greek colony in Lower 
Italy, joined them in battle against the Ro- 
mans by the river Siris. The battle was long 
and bloody, but Pyrrhus won it with the aid of 
his elephants which were then unknown to the 
Romans. He defeated the Romans again at 
Asculum. Then a truce was made, and Pyrrhus 
passed over into Sicily to assist the islanders 
against the Carthaginians. Misunderstandings 
arose, however, and he quitted the island to 
renew his war against Rome. On the way he 
met a Carthaginian fleet, and lost a large por- 
tion of his ships. Later, he was defeated by 
the Consul Curius Dentatus, and forced to 
abandon Italy. Successful in his next war, 
this time with the king of Macedonia, he then 
resolved upon the conquest of Sparta, but was 
repulsed in every attempt. His death occurred 
during the siege of Argos. While possessed 
of extraordinary military genius, Pyrrhus 
accomplished nothing but mischief on a gi- 
gantic scale. w 




ryrrhus, » 



Roman Soldiers. 



-•^r^f^ 









"'''/'"^II 




PYRRHUS 



CHAPTER I. 



OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. 

Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, entered at the 
very beginning of his life upon the extraor- 
dinary series of romantic adventures which 
so strikingly marked his career. He became 
an exile and a fugitive from his father's house 
when he was only two years old, having been 
suddenly borne away at that period by the at- 
tendants of the household, to avoid a most im- 
minent personal danger that threatened him. 
The circumstances which gave occasion for 
this extraordinary ereption were as follows: 

The country of Epirus, as will be seen by the 
accompanying map, was situated on the east- 
ern shore of the Adriatic Sea, and on the 
southwestern confines of Macedonia. The 
kingdom of Epirus was thus very near to, and 
in some respects dependent upon, the king- 
dom of Macedon. In fact, the public affairs 



14 PYRRHUS. 

of the two countries, through the personal re- 
lations and connections which subsisted from 
time to time between the royal families that 
reigned over them respectively, were often in- 
timately intermingled, so that there could 
scarcely be any important war, or even any 
great civil dissention in Macedon, which 
did not sooner or later draw the king or the 
people of Epirus to take part in the dispute, 
either on one side or on the other. And as it 
sometimes happened that in these questions of 
Macedonian politics the king and the people 
of Epirus took opposite sides, the afifairs of the 
great kingdom were often the means of bring- 
ing into the smaller one an infinite degree of 
trouble and confusion. 

The period of Pyrrhus's career was immedi- 
ately subsequent to that of Alexander the 
Great, the birth of Pyrrhus having taken place 
about four years after the death of Alexander 
At this time it happened that the relations 
which subsisted between the royal families of 
the two kingdoms were very intimate. This 
intimacy arose from an extremely important 
intermarriage which had taken place between 
the two families in the preceding generation 
— namely, the marriage of Philip of Macedon 
with Olympias, the daughter of a king of Epir- 



OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. 1$ 

US. Philip and Olympias were the father and 
mother of Alexander the Great. Of course, 
during the whole period of the great conquer- 
or's history, the people of Epirus, as well as 
those of Macedon, felt a special interest in his 
career. They considered him as a descend- 
ant of their own royal line, as well as of that 
of Macedon, and so, very naturally, appro- 
priated to themselves some portion of the 
glory which he acquired. Olympias, too, who 
sometimes, after her marriage with Philip, re- 
sided at Epirus, and sometimes at Macedon, 
maintained an intimate and close connection, 
both with her own and with Philip's family; 
and thus, through various results of her 
agency, as well as through the fame of Alex- 
ander's exploits, the governments of the two 
countries were continually commingled. 

It must not, however, by any means be sup- 
posed that the relations which were establish- 
ed through the influence of Olympias, between 
the courts of Epirus and of Macedon, were al- 
ways of a friendly character. They were, in 
fact, often the very reverse. Olympias was a 
woman of a very passionate and ungovern- 
able temper, and of a very determined will; 
and as Philip was himself as impetuous and 
as resolute as she, the domestic life of this dis- 



l6 PYRRHUS. 

tinguished pair was a constant succession of 
storms. At the commencement of her mar- 
ried life, Olympias was, of course, generally 
successful in accomplishing her purposes. 
Among other measures, she induced Philip to 
establish her brother upon the throne of Epir- 
us, in the place of another prince who was 
more directly in the line of succession. As, 
however, the true heir did not, on this account, 
relinquish his claims, two parties were formed 
in the country, adhering respectively to the 
two branches of the family that claimed the 
throne, and a division ensued, which, in the 
end, involved the kingdom of Epirus in pro- 
tracted civil wars. While, therefore, Olym- 
pias continued to hold an influence over her 
husband's mind, she exercised it in such a way 
as to open sources of serious calamity and 
trouble for her own native land. 

After a time, however, she lost this influ- 
ence entirely. Her disputes with Philip ended 
at length in a bitter and implacable quarrel. 
Philip married another woman, named Cleo- 
patra, partly, indeed, as a measure of political 
alliance, and partly as an act of hostility and 
hatred against Olympias, whom he accused of 
the most disgraceful crimes. Olympias went 



OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. I7 

home to Epirus in a rage, and sought refuge 
in the court of her brother. 

Alexander, her son, was left behind at 
Macedon at this separation between his father 
and mother. He was then about nineteen 
years of age. He took part with his mother 
in the contest. It is true, he remained for a 
time at the court of Philip after his mother's 
departure, but his mind was in a very irritable 
and sullen mood; and at length, on the oc- 
casion of a great public festival, an angry con- 
versation between Alexander and Philip oc- 
curred, growing out of some allusions which 
were made to Olympias by some of the guests, 
in the course of which Alexander openly de- 
nounced and defied the king, and then abrupt- 
ly left the court, and went off to Epirus to 
join his mother. Of course the attention of 
the people of Epirus was strongly attracted 
to this quarrel, and they took sides, some with 
Philip, and some with Olympias and Alexan- 
der. 

Not very long after this Philip was assassin- 
ated in the most mysterious and extraordin- 
ary manner.* Olympias was generally accus- 
ed of having been the instigator of this deed. 

*For a full account of this transaction, see "History 
of Alexander the Great." 



l8 PYRRHUS. 

There was no positive evidence of her guilt ; 
nor, on the other hand, had there ever been in 
her character and conduct any such indica- 
tions of the presence of even the ordinary sen- 
timents of justice and humanity in her heart 
as could form a presumption of her innocence. 
In a word, she was such a woman that it was 
more easy and natural, as it seemed, for man- 
kind to believe her guilty than innocent; and 
she has accordingly been very generally con- 
demned, though on very slender evidence, as 
accessory to the crime. 

Of course, the death of Philip, whether 
Olympias was the procurer of it or not, was 
of the greatest conceivable advantage to her 
in respect to its effect upon her position, and 
upon the promotion of her ambitious schemes. 
The way was at once opened again for her re- 
turn to Macedon. Alexander, her son, suc- 
ceeded immediately to the throne. He was 
very young, and would submit, as she sup- 
posed, very readily to the influence of his 
mother. This proved, in fact, in some sense 
to be true. Alexander, whatever may have 
been his faults in other respects, was a very 
dutiful son. He treated his mother, as long as 
he lived, with the utmost consideration and 
respect, while yet he would not in any sense 



OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. IC) 

subject himself to her authority and influence 
in his poHtical career. He formed his own 
plans, and executed them in his own way; 
and if there was ever at any time any dispute 
or disagreement between him and Olympias 
in respect to his measures, she soon learned 
that he was not to be controlled in these 
things, and gave up the struggle. Nor was 
this a very extraordinary result; for we often 
see that a refractory woman, who can not by 
any process be made to submit to her husband, 
is easily and completely managed by a son. 

Things went on thus tolerably smoothly 
while Alexander lived. It was only tolerably, 
however; for Olympias, though she always 
continued on friendly terms with Alexander 
himself, quarreled incessantly with the com- 
manders and ministers of state whom he left 
with her at Macedon while he was absent on 
his Asiatic campaigns. These contentions 
caused no very serious difficulty so long as 
Alexander himself was alive to interpose, when 
occasion required, and settle the difificulties 
and disputes which originated in them before 
they became unmanageable. Alexander was 
always adroit enough to do this in a manner 
that was respectful and considerate toward 
his mother, and which yet preserved the act- 



20 PYRRHUS. 

ual administrative power of the kingdom in 
the hands to which he had intrusted it. 

He thus amused his mother's mind, and 
soothed her irritable temper by marks of con- 
sideration and regard, and sustained her in a 
very dignified and lofty position in the royal 
household, while yet he confided to her very 
little substantial power. 

The officer whom Alexander had left in 
chief command at Macedon, while absent on 
his Asiatic expedition, was Antipater. Antip- 
ater was a very venerable man, then nearly 
seventy years of age. He had been the prin- 
cipal minister of state in Macedonia for a long 
period of time, having served Philip in that 
capacity with great fidelity and success for 
many years before Alexander's accession. 
During the whole term of his public office, he 
had maintained a most exalted reputation for 
wisdom and virtue. Philip placed the most 
absolute and entire confidence in him, and 
often committed the most momentous affairs 
to his direction. And yet, notwithstanding 
the illustrious position which Antipater thus 
occupied, and the great influence and control 
which he exercised in the public affairs of 
Macedon, he was simple and unpretending in 
his manners, and kind and considerate to all 



OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. 21 

around him, as if he were entirely devoid of 
all feelings of personal ambition, and 
were actuated only by an honest and 
sincere devotedness to the cause of those 
whom he served. Various anecdotes were 
related of him in the Macedonian court, 
which showed the estimation in which 
he was held. For example, Philip one 
day, at a time when placed in circumstances 
v/hich required special caution and vigilance 
on his part, made his appearance at a late hour 
in the morning and he apologized for it by 
saying to the officers, "I have slept rather late 
this morning, but then I knew that Antipater 
was awake.'' Alexander, too, felt the highest 
respect and veneration for Antipater's charac- 
ter. At one time some person expressed sur- 
prise that Antipater did not clothe himself in a 
purple robe — the badge of nobility and great- 
ness — as the other great commanders and 
ministers of state were accustomed to do. 
"Those men," said Alexander, "wear purple 

on the outside, but Antipater is purple with- 
in »* 
m. 

The whole country, in a word, felt so much 

confidence in the wisdom, the justice, and the 

moderation of Antipater, that they submitted 

very readily to his sway during the absence 

2— Pyrrhus 



22 PYRRHUS. 

of Alexander. Olympias, however, caused him 
continual trouble. In the exercise of his re- 
gency, he governed the country as he thought 
his duty to the people of the realm and to 
Alexander required, without yielding at all to 
the demands or expectations of Olympias. 
She, consequently, finding that he was un- 
manageatJe, did all in her power to embarrass 
him in his plans, and to thwart and circum- 
vent him. She wrote letters continually to 
Alexander, complaining incessantly of his con- 
duct, sometimes misrepresenting occurrences 
which had actually taken place, and sometimes 
making accusations wholly groundless and un- 
true. Antipater, in the same manner, in his 
letters to Alexander, complained of the inter- 
ference of Olympias, and of the trouble and 
embarrassment which her conduct occasioned 
him. Alexander succeeded for a season in 
settling these difficulties more or less perfectly, 
from time to time, as they arose; but at last 
he concluded to make a change in the regency. 
Accordingly, on an occasion when a consider- 
able body of new recruits from Macedon was 
to be marched into Asia, Alexander ordered 
Antipater to accompany them, and, at the 
same time, he sent home another general 
named Craterus, in charge of a body of troops; 



OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. 23 

from Asia, whose term of service had expired. 
His plan was to retain Antipater in his service 
in Asia, and to give to Craterus the govern- 
ment of Macedon, thinking it possible, per- 
haps, that Craterus might agree better with 
Olympias than Antipater had done. 

Antipater was not to leave Macedon until 
Craterus should arrive there ; and while Crate- 
rus was on his journey, Alexander suddenly 
died. This event changed the whole aspect of 
affairs throughout the empire, and led to a 
series of very important events, which follow- 
ed each other in rapid succession, and which 
were the means of affecting the conditions 
and the fortunes of Olympias in a very material 
manner. The state of the case was substan- 
tially thus. The story forms quite a compli- 
cated plot, which it will require close atten- 
tion on the part of the reader clearly to com- 
prehend. 

The question which rose first to the mind of 
every one, as soon as Alexander's death bo- 
came known, was that of the succession. There 
was, as it happened, no member of Alexan- 
der's own family who could be considered as 
clearly and unquestionably his heir. At the 
time of his death he had no child. He had a 



24 PYRRHUS. 

Wife, however, whose name was Roxana, and 
a child was born to her a few months after 
Alexander's death. Roxana was the daughter 
of an Asiatic prince. Alexander had taken 
her prisoner, with some other ladies, at a fort 
on a rock, where her father had placed her for 
safety. Roxana was extremely beautiful, and 
Alexander, as soon as he saw her, determined 
to make her his wife. Among the thousands 
of captives that he made in his Asiatic cam- 
paign, Roxana, it was said, was the most love- 
ly of all ; and as it was only about four years 
after her marriage that Alexander died, she 
was still in the full bloom of youth and beauty 
when her son was born. 

But besides this son, born thus a few 
months after Alexander's death, there was a 
brother of Alexander, or, rather, a half-broth- 
er, whose claims to the succession seemed to 
be more direct, for he was living at the time 
that Alexander died. The name of his brother 
was Aridseus. He was imbecile in intellect, 
and wholly insignificant as a political person- 
age, except so far as he was by birth the next 
heir to Alexander in the Macedonian line. He 
was not the son of Olympias, but of another 
mother, and his imbecility was caused, it was 
said, by an attempt of Olympias to poison him 



OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. 2$ 

in his youth. She was prompted to do this by 
her rage and jealousy against his mother, for 
whose sake PhiHp had abandoned her. The 
poison had ruined the poor child's intellect, 
though it had failed to destroy his life. Alex- 
ander, when he succeeded to the throne, 
adopted measures to protect Aridaeus from 
any future attempt which his mother might 
make to destroy him, and for this, as well as 
perhaps for other reasons, took Aridaeus with 
him on his Asiatic campaign. Aridaeus and 
Roxana were both at Babylon when Alexan- 
der died. 

Whatever mig^ht be thought of the compara- 
tive claims of Aridaeus and of Roxana's babe 
in respect to the inheritance of the Macedon- 
ian crown, it was plain that neither of them 
was capable of exercising any actual power — 
Alexander's son being incapacitated by his 
youthfulness, and his brother by his imbecil- 
ity. The real power fell immediately into the 
hands of Alexander's great generals and coun- 
selors of state. These generals, on consulta- 
tion with each other, determined not to de- 
cide the question of succession in favor of 
either of the two heirs, but to invest the sov- 
ereignty of the empire jointly in them both. 
So they gave to Aridaeus the name of Philip, 



2(y ~ PYRRHUS. 

and to Roxana's babe that of Alexander. They 
made these two princes jointly the nominal 
sovereigns, and then proceeded, in their name, 
to divide all the actual power among them- 
selves. 

In this division, Egypt, and the African 
countries adjoining it, were assigned to a very 
distinguished general of the name of Ptolemy, 
V\^ho became the founder of a long line of 
Egyptian sovereigns, known as the Ptolemaic 
dynasty — the line from which, some centuries 
later, the renowned Cleopatra sprang. Mace- 
don and Greece, with the other European 
provinces, were allotted to Antipater and 
Craterus — Craterus himself being then on the 
way to Macedon with the invalid and disband- 
ed troops whom Alexander had sent home. 
Craterus was in feeble health at this time, and 
was returning to Macedon partly on this ac- 
count. In fact, he was not fully able to take 
the active command of the detachment com- 
mitted to him, and Alexander had accordingly 
sent an officer with him, named Polysperchon. 
who was to assist him in the performance of 
his duties on the march. This Polysperchon, 
as will appear in the sequel, took a very im- 
portant part in the events which occurred in 



OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. 2*] 

Macedonia after he and Craterus had arrived 
there. 

In addition to these great and important 
provinces— that of Egypt in Africa, and Mace- 
don and Greece in Europe — there were var- 
ious other smaller ones in Asia Minor 
and in Syria, which were assignci to 
different generals and ministers of state 
who had been attached to the service 
of Alexander, and who all now claimed 
their several portions in the general distribu- 
tion of power which took place after his death. 
The distribution gave at first a tolerable de- 
gree of satisfaction. It was -made in the name 
of Philip the king, though the personage who 
really controlled the arrangement was Perdic- 
cas, the general who was nearest to the person 
of Alexander, and highest in rank at the time 
of the great conqueror's decease. In fact, as 
soon as Alexander died, Perdiccas assumed 
the commiand of the army, and the general di- 
rection of affairs.* He intended, as was sup- 
posed, to make himself emperor in the place 
of Alexander. At first he had strongly urged 
that Roxana's child should be declared heir to 

*The death of Alexander took place, and the dis- 
tribution here referred to was made at Babylon. 



28 PYRRHUS. 

the throne, to the exclusion of Aridseus. His 
secret motive in this was, that by governing 
as regent during the long minority of the in- 
fant, he might prepare the v^ay for finally seiz- 
ing the kingdom himself. The other generals 
of the army, however, would not consent to 
this ; they were inclined to insist that Aridseus 
should be king. The army was divided on this 
question for some days, and the dispute ran 
very high. It seem-ed, in fact, for a time, that 
there was no hope that it could be accommo- 
dated. There was every indication that a civil 
war must ensue — to break out first under the 
very walls of Babylon. At length, however, 
as has already been stated, the question was 
compromised, and it was agreed that the crown 
of Alexander should become the joint inherit- 
ance of Aridseus and of the infant child, and 
that Perdiccas should exercise at Babylon the 
functions of regent. Of course, when the di- 
vision of the empire was made, it was made in 
the name of Philip; for the child of Roxana, 
at the time of the division, was not yet born. 
But, though made in King Philip's name, it 
was really the work of Perdiccas. His plan, 
it was supposed, in the assignment of prov- 
inces to the various generals, was to remove 
them from Babylon, and give thm employ- 



OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. 29 

ment in distant fields, where they would not 
interfere with him in the execution of his 
plans for making himself master of the su- 
preme power. 

After these arrangements had been made, 
and the affairs of the empire had been toler- 
ably well settled for the time being by this dis- 
tribution of power, and Perdiccas began to 
consider what ulterior measures he should 
adopt for the widening and extending of his 
power, a question arose which for a season 
greatly perplexed him : it was the question of 
his marriage. Two proposals were made to 
him — one by Olympias, and one by Antipater. 
Each of these personages had a daughter 
whom they were desirous that Perdiccas 
should make his wife. The daughter of Olym- 
pias was named Cleopatra — that of Antipater 
was Nicsea. Cleopatra was a young widow. 
She was residing at this time in Syria. She 
had been married to a king of Epirus named 
Alexander, but was now residing in Sardis, in 
Asia Minor. Some of the counselors of Per- 
diccas represented to him very strongly that a 
marriage with her would strengthen his po- 
sition more than any other alliance that he 
could form, as she was the sister of Alexander 
the Great, and by his marriage with her he 



30 PYRRHUS. 

would secure to his side the influence of Olym- 
pias and all of Alexander's famil}^ Perdic- 
cas so far acceeded to these views that he sent 
a messenger to Sardis to visit Cleopatra in his 
name, and to make her a present. Olympias 
and Cleopatra accordingly considered the ar- 
rangement a settled affair. 

In the mean time, however, Antipater, who 
seems to have been more in earnest in his 
plans, sent off his daughter Nicsea herself to 
Babylon, to be offered directly to Perdiccas 
there. She arrived at Babylon after the mes- 
senger of Perdiccas had gone to visit Cleo- 
patra. The arrival of Nicsea brought up very 
distinctly to the mind of Perdiccas the advant 
ages of an alliance with Antipater. Olympias, 
it is true, had a great name, but she possessed 
no real power. Antipater, on the other hand, 
held sway over a widely-extended region, 
which comprised some of the most wealthy 
and populous countries on the globe. He had 
a large army under his command, too, con- 
sisting of the bravest and best-disciplined 
troops in the world; and he himself, though 
advanced in age, was a very able and effective 
commander. In a word, Perdiccas was per- 
suaded, by these and similar considerations, 
that the alliance of Antipater would be more 



OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. 3I 

serviceable to him than that of Olympias, and 
he accordingly married Nicaea. Olympias, 
who had always hated Antipater before, was 
now, when she found herself thus supplanted 
by him in her plans for allying herself with 
Perdiccas, aroused to the highest pitch of in- 
dignation and rage. 

Besides the marriage of Perdiccas, anothe^' 
matrimonial question arose about this time, 
which led to a great deal of difficulty. There 
was a lady of the royal family of Macedon 
named Cynane — a daughter of Philip of Mace- 
don, and half-sister of Alexander the Great — 
who had a daughter named Ada. Cynane 
conceived the design of marrying her daughter 
to King Philip, who was now, as well as Rox- 
ana and her babe, in the hands of Perdiccas 
as their guardian. Cynane stt out from Mace 
don with her daughter, on the journey to Asia, 
in order to carry this arrangement into effect. 
This was considered as a very bold undertak- 
ing on the part of Cynane and her daughter; 
for Perdiccas would, of course, be implacably 
hostile to any plan for the marriage of Philip, 
and especially so to his marrying a princess of 
the royal family of Macedon. In fact, as soon 
as Perdiccas heard of the movement which Cy- 
nane was making, he was enraged at the au- 



3^ PYRRHUS. 

dacity of it, and sent messengers to intercept 
Cynane and murder her on the way. This 
transaction, however, as soon as it was known, 
produced a great excitement throughout the 
whole of the Macedonian army. The army, in 
fact, felt so strong an attachment for every 
branch and every member of the family of 
Alexander, that they would not tolerate any 
violence or wrong against any one of them. 
Perdiccas was quite terrified at the storm 
which he had raised. He immediately coun- 
termanded the orders which he had given to 
the assassins ; and, to atone for his error and 
allay the excitement, he received Ada, when 
she arrived at Babylon, with great apparent 
kindness, and finally consented to the plan of 
her being married to Philip. She was accord- 
ingly married to him, and the army was ap- 
peased. Ada received at this time the name 
of Eurydice, and she became subsequently, 
under that name, quite renowned in history. 

During the time in which these several 
transactions were taking place, various in- 
trigues and contentions were going on among 
the governors of the different provinces in 
Europe and Asia, which, as the results of 
them did not particularly affect the affairs of 
Epirus, we need not here particularly describe. 



OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. 33 

During all this period, however, Perdiccas 
was extending and maturing his arrange- 
ments, and laying his plans for securing the 
whole empire to himself; while Antipatei and 
Ptolemy, in Macedon and Egypt, were all the 
time holding secret communications with each 
other, and endeavoring to devise means by 
which they might thwart and circumvent him. 
The quarrel was an example of what very of- 
ten occurs in such political systems as the 
Macedonian empire presented at this time — 
namely, a combining of the extremities against 
the centre. For some time the efforts of the 
hostile parties were confined to the maneuvers 
and counter-maneuvers which they devised 
against each other. Antipater was, in fact, re- 
strained from open hostility against Perdic- 
cas from a regard to his daughter Nicaea, who 
as has been already mentioned, was Perdic- 
cas' wife. At length, however, under the in- 
fluence of the increasing hostility which pre- 
vailed between the two families, Perdiccas de- 
termined to divorce Nic^a, and marry Cleo- 
patra after all. As soon as Antipater learned 
this, he resolved at once upon open war. The 
campaign commenced with a double opera- 
tion. Perdiccas himself raised an army; and, 
taking Philip and Eurydice, and also Roxana 



34 PYRRHUS. 

and her babe in his train, he marched into 
Egypt to make war against Ptolemy. At the 
same time, Antipater and Craterus, at the 
head of a large Macedonian force, passed 
across the Hellespont into Asia Minor, on 
their way to attack Perdiccas in Babylon. Per- 
diccas sent a large detachment of troops, un- 
der the command of a distinguished general, 
to meet and encounter Antipater and Crat- 
erus in Asia Minor, while he was himself en- 
gaged in the Egyptian campaign. 

The result of the contest was fatal to the 
cause of Perdiccas. Antipater advanced tri- 
umphantly through Asia Minor, though in 
one of the battles which took place there 
Craterus was slain. But while Craterus him- 
self fell, his troops were victorious. Thus the 
fortunes of war in this quarter went against 
Perdiccas. The result of his own operations 
in Egypt was still more disastrous to him. As 
he approached the Egyptian frontier, he found 
his soldiers very averse to fighting against 
Ptolemy, a general whom they had always re- 
garded with extreme respect and veneration, 
and who, as was well known, had governeJ 
his province in Egypt with the greatest wis- 
dom, justice, and moderation. Perdiccas 
treated this disaffection in a very haughty and 



OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. 35 

domineering manner. He called his soldiers 
rebels, and threatened to punish them as such. 
This aroused their indignation, and from se- 
cret rnurmurings they proceeded to loud and 
angry complaints. Perdiccas was not their 
king, they said, to lord it over them in that im- 
perious manner. He was nothing but the tu- 
tor of their kings, and they would not submit 
to any insolence from him. Perdiccas was 
soon quite alarmed to observe the degree of 
dissatisfaction which he had awakened, and 
the violence of the form which it seemed to be 
assuming. He changed his tone, and attempt- 
ed to soothe and conciliate the minds of his 
men. He at length succeeded so far as to re- 
store some degree of order and discipline to 
the army, and in that condition the expedition 
entered Egypt. 

Perdiccas crossed one of the branches of 
the Nile, and then led his army forward to 
attack Ptolemy in a strong fortress, where he 
had intrenched himself with his troops. The 
forces of Perdiccas, though much more nu- 
merous than those of Ptolemy, fought with 
very little spirit ; while those of Ptolemy ex- 
erted themselves to the utmost, under the in- 
fluence of the strong attachment which they 

3— Pyrrhus 



36 PYRRHUS. 

felt for their commander. Perdiccas was 
beaten in the engagement; and he was so 
much weakened by the defeat, that he deter- 
mined to retreat back across the river. When 
the army arrived at the bank of the 
stream, the troops began to pass over; 
but after about half the army had cross- 
ed, they found, to their surprise, that 
the water, which had been growing 
gradually deeper all the time, became impass- 
able. The cause of this deepening of the 
stream was at first a great mystery, since the 
surface of the water, as was evident by marks 
along the shore, remained all the time at the 
same level. It was at length ascertained that 
the cause of this extraordinary phenomenon 
was, that the sands in the bottom of the river 
were trampled up by the feet of the men and 
horses in crossing, so that the current of the 
water could wash them away; and such was 
the immense number of footsteps made by 
the successive bodies of troops, that, by the 
time the transportation had been half accom- 
plished, the water had become too deep to be 
forded. Perdiccas was thus, as it were, 
caught in a trap — half his army being on one 
side of the river, and himself, with the re- 
mainder, on the other. 




[i^A/WV\A/^^ 




Pyrrlius, face p, 36. 



A Macedonian Soldier. 



OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. 37 

He was seriously alarmed at the dangerous 
situation in which he thus found himself plac- 
ed, and immediately resorted to a variety of 
expedients to remedy the unexpected diffi- 
culty. All his efforts were, however, vain. 
Finally, as it seemed imperiously necessary 
to effect a junction between the two divisions 
of his army, he ordered those who had gone 
over to make an attempt, at all hazards, to re- 
turn. They did so; but in the attempt, vast 
numbers of men got beyond their depth, and 
were swept down by the current and drowned. 
Multitudes of the bodies, both of the dead 
and of the dying, were seized and devoured 
by the crocodiles which lined the shores of 
the river below. There were about two 
thousand men thus lost in the attempt to re- 
cross the stream. 

In all military operations, the criterion of 
merit, in the opinion of an army, is success ; 
and, of course, the discontent and disaffection 
which prevailed in the camp of Perdiccas 
broke out anew in consequence of these mis- 
fortunes. There was a general mutiny. The 
officers themselves took the lead in it, and one 
hundred of them went over in a body to Ptol- 
emy's side, taking with them a considerable 
portion of the army; while those that were 



38 PYRRHUS. 

left remained with Perdiccas, not to defend, 
but to destroy him. A troop of horse gathered 
around his tent, guarding it on all sides, to 
prevent the escape of their victim, and then a 
certain number of the men rushed in and kill 
ed him in the midst of his terror and despair. 
Ptolemy now advanced to the camp of Per- 
diccas, and was received there with acclama- 
tion. The whole army submitted themselves 
at once to his command. An arrangement 
was made for the return of the army to Baby- 
lon, with the kings and their train. Pithon, 
one of the generals of Perdiccas, took the com- 
mand of the army, and the charge of the royal 
family, on the return. In the mean time, An- 
tipater had passed into Asia, victorious over 
the forces that Perdiccas had sent against 
him. A new congress of generals was held, 
and a new distribution of power was made. 
By the new arrangement, Antipater was to 
retain his command in Macedon and Greece, 
and to have the custody of the kings. Accord- 
ingly, when every thing had thus been set- 
tled, Antipater set out on his return to Mace- 
don, with Philip and Eurydice, and also Rox- 
ana and the infant Alexander, in his train. 
The venerable soldier — for he was now about 
eighty years of age — was received in Mace- 



OLYMPIAS AND ANTIPATER. 



39 



don, on his return, with universal honor and 
applause. There were several considerations, 
in fact, which conspired to exalt Antipater in 
the estimation of his countrymen on this oc- 
casion. He had performed a great military 
exploit in conducting the expedition into 
Asia, from which he was now triumphantly 
returning. He was bringing back to Mace- 
don, too, the royal family of Alexander, the 
representatives of the ancient Macedonian 
line; and by being made the custodian of 
these princes, and regent of the empire in 
their name, he had been raised to the most 
exalted position which the whole world at that 
period could afford. The Macedonians re- 
ceived him, accordingly, on his return, with 
loud and universal acclamations. 



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CHAPTER 11. 



CASSANDER. 



Although Antipater, on his return to 
Macedon, came back loaded with honors, and 
in the full and triumphant possession of 
power, his situation was still not without its 
difficulties. He had for enemies, in Macedon, 
two of the most violent and unmanageable 
women that ever lived — Olympias and Euryd- 
ice — who quarreled with him incessantly, and 
who hated each other even more than they 
hated him. 

Olympias was at this time in Epirus. She 
remained there, because she did not choose to 
put herself under Antipater's power by resid- 
ing in Macedon. She succeeded, however, by 
her maneuvers and intrigues, in giving Anti- 
pater a great deal of trouble. Her ancient 
animosity against him had been very much 
increased and aggravated by the failure of her 
plan for marrying her daughter Cleopatra to 
Perdiccas, through the advances which Anti- 
pater made ip. behalf of his daughter Nicsea; 
40 



CASSANDER. 4I 

and though Nicaea and Perdiccas were now- 
dead, yet the transaction was an offense 
which such a woman as Olympias never could 
forgive. 

Eurydice was a still greater source of an- 
noyance and embarrassment to Antipater 
than Olympias herself. She was a woman of 
very masculine turn of mind, and she had 
been brought up by her mother, Cynane, to 
martial exercises, such as those to which 
young men in those days were customarily 
trained. She could shoot arrows, and throw 
the javelin, and ride on horseback at the head 
of a troop of armed men. As soon as she was 
married to Philip she began at once to as- 
sume an air of authority, thinking, apparent- 
ly, that she herself, being the wife of the king, 
was entitled to a much greater share of the re- 
gal authority than the generals, who, as she 
considered them, were merely his tutors and 
guardians, or, at most, only military agents, 
appointed to execute his will. During the 
memorable expedition into Egypt, Perdiccas 
had found it very difficult to exercise any con- 
trol over her; and after the death of Perdic- 
cas, she assumed a more lofty and imperious 
tone than ever. She quatreled incessantly 
with Pithon, the commander of the army, on 



42 PYRRHUS. 

the return from Egypt; and she made the 
most resolute and determined opposition to 
the appointment of Antipater as the custodian 
of the persons of the kings. 

The place where the consultation was held, 
at which this appointment was made, was 
Triparadeisus, in Syria. This was the place 
where the expedition of Antipater, coming 
from Asia Minor, met the army of Egypt on 
its return. As soon as the junction of the two 
armies was effected, and the grand council was 
convened, Eurydice made the most violent 
opposition to the proceedings. Antipater re- 
proved her for evincing such turbulence and 
insubordination of spirit. This made her more 
angry than ever; and when at length Anti- 
pater was appointed to the regency, she went 
out and made a formal harangue to the army, 
in which she denounced Antipater in the se- 
verest terms, and loaded him with crimina- 
tions and reproaches, and endeavored to in- 
cite the soldiers to revolt. Antipater endeav- 
ored to defend himself against these accusa- 
tions by a calm reply ; but the influence which 
Eurdyice's tempestuous eloquence exerted on 
the minds of the soldiery was too much for 
him. A very serious riot ensued, which 



CASSANDER. 43 

threatened to lead to the most disastrous re- 
sults. For a time Antipater's life was in most 
imminent danger, and he was saved only by 
the interposition of some of the other gener- 
als, who hazarded their own lives to rescue 
him from the enraged soldiery. 

The excitement of this scene gradually sub- 
sided, and, as the generals persisted in the ar- 
rangement which they had made, Eurydice 
found herself forced to submit to it. She had, 
in fact, no real power in her hands except that 
of making temporary mischief and disturb- 
ance; and, as is usually the case with charac- 
ters like hers, when she found that those 
around her could not be driven from their 
ground by her fractiousness and obstinacy, 
she submitted herself to the necessity of the 
case, though in a moody and sullen manner. 
Such were the relations which Antipater and 
Eurydice bore to each other on the return of 
Antipater to Macedon. 

The troubles, however, in his government, 
which Antipater might have reasonably ex- 
pected to arise from his connection with 
Olympias and Eurydice, were destined to a 
very short continuance, so far as he person- 
ally was concerned ; for, not long after his re- 
turn to Macedon, he fell sick of a dangerous 



44 PYRRHUS. 

disease, under which it was soon evident that 
the vital principle, at the advanced age to 
which he had attained, must soon succumb. 
In fact, Antipater himself soon gave up all 
hopes of recovery, and began at once to make 
arrangements for the final surrender of his 
power. 

It will be recollected that when Craterus 
came from Asia to Macedon, about the time 
of Alexander's death, he brought with him a 
general named Polysperchon, who, though 
nominally second in command, really had 
charge of the army on the march, Craterus 
himself being at the time an invalid. When, 
some time afterward, Antipater and Craterus 
set out on their expedition to Asia, in the war 
against Perdiccas, Polysperchon was left in 
charge of the kingdom of Macedon, to govern 
it as regent until Antipater should return. 
Antipater had a son named Cassander, who 
was a general in his army. Cassander natur- 
ally exepected that, during the absence of his 
father, the kingdom would be committed to 
his charge. For some reason or other, how- 
ever, Antipater had preferred Polysperchon, 
and had intrusted the government to him. 
Polysperchon had, of course, become ac- 
quainted with the duties of government, and 



CASSANDER. 45 

had acquired an extensive knowledge of Ma- 
cedonian affairs. He had governed well, too, 
and the people were accustomed to his sway. 
Antipater concluded, therefore, that it would 
be better to continue Polysperchon in power 
after his death, rather than to displace Poly- 
sperchon for the sake of advancing his son 
Cassander. He therefore made provision for 
giving to Cassander a very high command in 
the army, but he gave Polysperchon the king- 
dom. This act, though Cassander himseU 
never forgave it, raised Antipater to a higher 
place than ever in the estimation of mankind. 
They said that he did what no monarch ever 
did before; in determining the great question 
of the succession, he made the aggrandize- 
ment of his own family give place to the wel- 
fare of the realm. 

Antipater on his death-bed, among other 
councils which he gave to Polysperchon, 
warned him very earnestly against the danger 
of yielding to any woman whatever a share in 
the control of public affairs. Woman, he said, 
was, from her very nature, the creature of im- 
pulse, and was swayed in all her conduct by 
the emotions and passions of her heart. She 
possessed none of the calm, considerate, and 
self-controlling principles of wisdom and pru- 



46 PYRRHUS. 

dence, so essential for the proper administra- 
tion of the affairs of states and nations. These 
cautions, as Antipater uttered them, were ex- 
pressed in general terms, but they were un- 
derstood to refer to Olympias and Eurydice, 
whom it had always been very difficult to con- 
trol, and who, of course, when Antipater 
should be removed from the scene, might be 
expected to com.e forward with a spirit more 
obtrusive and unmanageable than ever. 

These councils, however, of the dying king 
seemed to have had very little effect upon 
Polysperchon ; for one of the first measures 
of his government, after Antipater was dead, 
was to send to Epirus to invite Olympias to 
return to Macedon. This measure was de- 
cided upon in a grand council which Poly- 
sperchon convened to deliberate on the state 
of public affairs as soon as the government 
came into his hands. Polysperchon thought 
that he should greatly strengthen his admin- 
istration by enlisting Olympias on his side. 
She was held in great veneration by all the 
people of Macedon; not on account of any 
personal qualities which she possessed to en- 
title her to such regard, but because she was 
the mother of Alexander. Polysperchon, 
therefore, considered it very important to se- 



CASSANDER. 47 

cure her influence, and the prestige of her 
.name in his favor. At the same time, while he 
thus sought to propitiate Olympias, he neg- 
lected Cassander and all the other members 
of Antipater's family. He considered them, 
doubtless, as rivals and antagonists, whom 
he was to keep down by every means in his 
power. 

Cassander, who was a man of a very bold, 
determined, and ambitious spirit, remained 
quietly in Polysperchon's court for a little 
time, watching attentively all that was done, 
and revolving silently in his mind the ques- 
tion what course he himself should pursue. 
At length he formed a small party of his 
friends to go away on a hunting excursion. 
When he reached a safe distance from the 
court of Polysperchon, he called his friends 
around him, and informed them that he had 
resolved not to submit to the usurpation of 
Polysperchon, who, in assuming the throne 
of Macedon, had seized what rightfully be- 
longed, he said, to him, Cassander, as his 
father's son and heir. He invited his friends 
to join him in the enterprise of deposing Poly- 
sperchon, and assuming the crown. 

He urged this undertaking upon them with 
very specious arguments. It was the only 

4— Pyrrhus 



48 PYRRHUS. 

course of safety for them, as well as for him, 
since they — that is, the friends to whom Cas- 
sander was making these proposals — had all 
been friends of Antipater; and Olympias, 
whom Polysperchon was about to take into 
his counsels, hated the very name of Antipa- 
ter, and would evince, undoubtedly, the most 
unrelenting hostility to all whom she should 
consider as having been his friends. He was 
confident, he said, that the Asiatic princes and 
generals would espouse his cause. They had 
been warmly attached to Antipater, and 
would not willingly see his son and rightful 
successor deprived of his legitimate rights. 
Besides, Philip and Eurydice would join him. 
They had everything to fear from Olympias, 
and would, of course, oppose the power of 
Polysperchon, now that he had determined to 
ally himself to her. 

The friends of Cassander very readily 
agreed to his proposal, and the result proved 
the truth of his predictions. The Asiatic prin- 
ces furnished Cassander with very efficiejit 
aid in his attempt to depose his rival. Olym- 
pias adhered to Polysperchon, while Eurydice 
favored Cassander's cause. A terrible con- 
flict ensued. It was waged for some time in 
Greece, and in other countries more or less re- 



CASSANDER. 49 

mote from Macedon, the advantage in the 
combats being sometimes on one side and 
sometimes on the other. It is not necessary 
to detail here the events which occurred in the 
contest so long as the theatre of war was be- 
yond the frontiers of Macedon, for the parties 
with whom we are now particularly dealing 
were not directly affected by the conflict until 
it came nearer home. 

It ought here to be stated that Olympias 
did not at first accept the invitation to return 
to Macedon which Polysperchon sent to her. 
She hesitated. She consulted with her friends, 
and they were not decided in respect to the 
course which it would be best for her to pur- 
sue. She had made a great many enemies in 
Macedon during her former residence there, 
and she knew well that she would have a 
great deal to fear from their hostility in case 
she should return, and thus put herself again, 
as it were, into their power. Then, besides, 
it was quite uncertain what course affairs in 
Macedon would finally take. Antipater had 
bequeathed the kingdom to Polysperchon, it 
was true; but there might be great doubt 
whether the people would acquiesce in this de- 
cision, and allow the supreme power to re- 
main quietly in Polysperchon's hands. She 



50 PYRRHUS. 

concluded, therefore, to remain a short time 
where she was, till she could see how the case 
would finally turn. She accordingly con- 
tinued to reside in Epirus, keeping up, how- 
ever, a continual correspondence with Poly- 
sperchon in respect to the measures of his 
government, and watching the progress of the 
v/ar between him and Cassander in Greece, 
when that war broke out, with the utmost 
solicitude and anxiety. 

Cassander proved to be too strong for Poly- 
sperchon in Greece. He had obtained large 
bodies of troops from his Asiatic allies, and he 
maneuvered and managed these forces with so 
much bravery and skill, that Polysperchon 
could not dislodge him from the country. A 
somewhat curious incident occurred on one 
occasion during the campaign, which illus- 
trates the modes of warfare practiced in those 
days. It seems that one of the cities of Pelo- 
ponnesus, named Megalopolis, was on the 
side of Cassander, and when Polysperchon 
sent them a summons to surrender to him and 
acknowledge his authority, they withdrew all 
their property and the whole of their popula- 
tion within the walls, and bid him defiance. 
Polysperchon then advanced and laid siege to 
the city. 



CASSANDER. 5f 

After fully investing the city and commenc- 
ing operations on various sides, to occupy the 
attention of the garrison, he employed a corps 
of sappers and miners in secretly undermining 
a portion of the wall. The mode of proce- 
dure, in operations like this, was to dig a sub- 
terranean passage leading to the foundations 
of the wall, and then, as fast as these founda- 
tions were removed, to substitute props to 
support the superincumbent mass until all 
was ready for the springing of the mine. 
When the excavations were completed, the 
props were suddenly pulled away, and the 
wall would cave in, to the great astonishment 
of the besieged, who, if the operation had 
been skillfully performed, knew nothing of 
the danger until the final consummation of it 
opened suddenly before their eyes a great 
breach in their defenses. Polysperchon's 
mine was so successful, that three towers fell 
into it, with all the wall connecting them. 
These towers came down with a terrific crash, 
the materials of which they had been com- 
posed lying, after the fall, half buried in the 
ground, a mass of ruins. 

The garrison of the city immediately re- 
paired in great numbers to the spot, to pre- 
vent the ingress of the enemy; while, on the 



ro PYRRHUS. 

Other hand, a strong detachment of troops 
rushed forward from the camp of Polysper- 
chon to force their way through the breach 
into the city. A very desperate conflict en- 
sued, and while the men of the city were thus 
engaged in keeping back the invaders, the 
women and children were employed in throw- 
ing up a line of intrenchments further within, 
to cover the opening which had been made in 
the wall. The people of the city gained the 
victory in the combat. The storming party 
were driven back, and the besieged were be- 
ginning to congratulate themselves on their 
escape from the danger which had threatened 
them, when they were suddenly terrified be- 
yond measure by the tidings that the besieg- 
ers were arranging a train of elephants to 
bring in through the breach. Elephants were 
often used for war in those days in Asiatic 
countries, but they had seldom appeared in 
Greece. Polysperchon, however, had a num- 
ber of them in the train of his army, and the 
soldiers of Megalopolis were overwhelmed 
with consternation at the prospect of being 
trampled under foot by these huge beasts, 
wholly ignorant as they were of the means of 
contending against them. 

It happened, however, that there was in 



CASSANDER. 53 

the city of Megalopolis at this time a soldier 
named Damides, who had served in former 
years under Alexander the Great, in Asia. 
He went to the officers who had command 
within the city and offered his aid. 'Tear 
nothing/' said he, ''but go on with your pre- 
parations of defense, and leave the elephants 
to m'C. I will answer for them, if you will do 
as I say/' The officers agreed to follow his in- 
structions. He immediately caused a great 
number of sharp iron spikes to be made. 
These spikes he set firmly in the ends of short 
stakes of wood, and then planted the stakes in 
the ground all about the intrenchments and in 
the breach, in such a manner that the spikes 
themselves, points upward, protruded from 
the ground. The spikes were then concealed 
from view by covering the ground with straw 
and other similar rubbish. 

The consequence of this arrangement was, 
that when the elephants advanced to enter the 
breach, they trod upon these spikes, and the 
whole column of them was soon disabled and 
thrown into confusion. Some of the elephants 
were wounded so severely that they fell where 
they stood, and were unable to rise. Others, 
maddened with the pain which they endured, 
turned back and trampled their own keepers 



54 PYRRHUS. 

under foot in their attempts to escape from 
the scene. The breach, in short, soon became 
so choked up with the bodies of beasts and 
men, that the assailants were compelled to 
give up the contest and withdraw. A short 
time afterward, Polysperchon raised the siege 
and abandoned the city altogether. 

In fact, the party of Cassander was in the 
end triumphant in Greece, and Polysperchon 
determined to return to Macedon. 

In the meantime, Olympias had determined 
to come to Macedon, and aid Polysperchon 
in his contest with Cassander. She accord- 
ingly left Epirus, and with a small body of 
troops, with which her brother Alexander, 
who was then King of Epirus, furnished her, 
went on and joined Polysperchon on his re- 
turn. Eurydice was alarmed at this; for, 
since she considered Olympias as her great 
political rival and enemy, she knew very well 
that there could be no safety for her or her 
husband if Olympias should obtain the as- 
cendency in the court of Polysperchon. She 
accordingly began to call upon those around 
her, in the city where she was then residing, 
to arm themselves for her defense. They did 
so, and a considerable force was thus collect- 
ed. Eurydice placed herself at the head of it. 



CASSANDER. 55 

She sent messengers off to Cassander, urging 
him to come immediately and join her. She 
also sent an embassage to Polysperchon, com- 
manding him, in the name of PhiHp the king, 
to dehver up his army to Cassander. Of 
course this was only a form, as she could not 
have expected that such a command would 
have been obeyed ; and, accordingly, after 
having sent off these orders, she placed her- 
self at the head of the troops that she had 
raised, and marched out to meet Polysperchon 
on his return, intending, if he would not sub- 
mit, to give him battle. 

Her designs, however, were all frustrated 
in the end in a very unexpected manner. For 
when the two armies approached each other, 
the soldiers who were on Eurydice's side, in- 
stead of fighting in her cause as she expected, 
failed her entirely at the time of trial. For 
when they saw Oiympias, whom they had 
long been accustomed almost to adore as the 
wife of old King Philip, and the mother of 
Alexander, and who was now advancing to 
meet them on her return to Macedon, splen- 
didly attended, and riding in her chariot, at 
the head of Polysperchon's army, with the air 
and majesty of a queen, they were so over- 
powered with the excitement of the spectacle, 



56 PYRRHUS. 

that they abandoned Eurydice in a body, and 
went over, by common consent, to Polysper- 
chon's side. 

Of course Eurydice herself and her hus- 
band Philip, who was with her at this time, 
fell into Polysperchon's hands as prisoners. 
Olympias was almost beside herself with ex- 
ultation and joy at having her hated rival thus 
put into her power. She imprisoned Eurydice 
and her husband in a dungeon, so small that 
there was scarcely room for them to turn 
themselves in it; and while they were thus 
confined, the only attention which the wretch- 
ed prisoners received was to be fed, from time 
to time, with coarse provisions, thrust in to 
them through a hole in the wall. Having 
thus made Eurydice secure, Olympias pro- 
ceeded to wreak her vengeance on all the 
members of the family of Antipater whom 
she could get within her power. Cassander, 
it is true, was beyond 'her reach for the pres- 
ent; he was gradually advancing through 
Thessaly into Macedonia, at the head of a 
powerful and victorious army. There was an- 
other son of Antipater, however, named Nica 
nor, who was then in Macedon. Him she 
seized and put to death, together with about 
a hundred of his relatives and friends. lU 



CASSANDER. 



57 



fact, so violent and insane was her rage 
against the house of Antipater, that she open- 
ed a tomb where the body of another of his 
sons had been interred, and caused the re- 
mains to be brought out and thrown into the 
street. The people around her began to re- 
monstrate against such atrocities ; but these 
remonstrances, instead of moderating her 
rage, only excited it still more. She sent to 




£uRYoic£ IN Prison. 



the dungeon where her prisoners, Philip and 
Eurydice, were confined, and caused Philip to 



58 PYRRHUS. 

be stabbed to death with daggers ; and then, 
when this horrid scene was scarcely over, an 
executioner came in to Eurydice vv^ith a dag- 
ger, a rope, and a cup of poison, saying that 
Olympias sent them to her, that she might 
choose herself by what she would die. Eury- 
dice, on receiving this message, replied, say- 
ing, "I pray Heaven that Olympias herself 
may one day have the like alternative present- 
ed to her." She then proceeded to tear the 
linen dress which she wore into bandages, and 
to bind up with these bandages the wounds 
in the dead body of her husband. This dread- 
ful though useless duty being performed, she 
then, rejecting all of the means of self-destruc- 
tion which Olympias had offered her, strangl- 
ed herself by tying tigiht about her neck a 
band which she obtained from her own attire. 
Of course, the tidings of these proceedings 
were not 'long in reaching Cassander. He was 
at this time in Greece, advancing, however, 
slowly to the northward, toward Macedon. In 
coming from Greece into Thessaly, his route 
lay through the celebrated Pass of Thermopy- 
lae. He found this pass guarded by a large 
body of troops, which had been posted there 
to oppose his passage. He immediately got 
together all the ships, boats, galleys, and ves- 



CASSANDER. 59 

sels of every kind which he could procure, 
and, embarking his army on board of them, 
he sailed past the defile, and landed in Thes- 
ally. Thence he marched into Macedon. 

While Cassander has thus been slowly ap- 
proaching, Polysperchon and Olympias had 
been very vigorously employed in making 
preparations to receive him. Olympias, with 
Roxana and the young Alexander, who was 
now about five years old, in her train, traveled 
to and fro among the cities of Macedonia, 
summoning the people to arms, enlisting all 
who would enter her service, and collecting 
money and military stores. She also sent to 
Epiras, to ^acides the king, the father of 
Pyrrhus, imploring him to come to her aid 
with all the force he could bring. Polysper- 
chon, too, though separate from Olympias, 
made every effort to strengthen himself 
against his coming enemy. Things were in 
this state when Cassander entered Macedon. 

Cassander immediately divided his troops 
into two distinct bodies, and sending one, un- 
der the command of an able general, to at- 
tack Polysperchon, he himself went in pur- 
suit of Olympias. Olympias retreated before 
him, until at length she reached the city of 
Pydna, a city situated in the southeastern part 



6o PYRRHUS. 

of Macedon, on the shore of the ^gean Sea." 
She knew that the force under her command 
was not sufficient to enable her to offer her 
enemy battle, and she accordingly went into 
the city, and fortified herself there. Cassan- 
der advanced immediately to the place, and, 
finding the city too strongly fortified to be 
carried by assault, he surrounded it with his 
army, and invested it closely both by land and 
sea. 

The city was not well provided for a siege, 
and the people within very soon began to 
suffer for want of provisions. Olympias, how- 
ever, urged them to hold out, representing to 
them that she had sent to Epiras for assist- 
ance, and that ^acides, the king, was already 
on his way, with a large force, to succor her. 
This was very true; but, unfortunately for 
Olympias, Cassander was aware of this fact 
as well as she, and, instead of waiting for the 
troops of -^acides to come and attack him, he 
had sent a large armed force to the confines 
between Epiras and Macedon, to intercept 
these expected allies in the passes of the 
mountains. This movement was successful. 
The army of ^acides found, when they 
reached the frontier, that the passages leading 
*See map. 



CASSANDER. 6l 

into Macedonia were all blocked up by the 
troops of the enemy. They made some in- 
effectual attempts to break through ; and then 
the leading officers of the army, who had 
never been really willing to embark in th-^ 
war, revolted against ^acides, and returned 
homiC. And as, in the case of deeds of vio- 
lence and revolution, it is always safest to go 
through and finish the work when it is once 
begun, they deposed ^acides entirely, and 
raised the other branch of the royal family to 
the throne in his stead. It was on this occa- 
sion that the infant Pyrrhus was seized and 
carried away by his friends, to save his life, as 
mentioned in the opening paragraphs of this 
history. The particulars of this revolution, 
and of the flight of Pyrrhus, will be given 
more fully in the next chapter. It is suffici- 
ent here to say, that the attempt of ^acides 
to come to the rescue of Olympias in her peril 
wholly failed, and there was nothing now left 
but the wall of the city to defend her from her 
terrible foe. 

In the meantime, the distress in the city for 
want of food had become horrible. Olympias 
herself, with Roxana and the boy, and the 
other ladies of the court, lived on the flesh of 
horses. The soldiers devoured the bodies of 



62 PYRRHUS. 

their comrades as they were slain upon the 
wall. They fed the elephants, it was said, on 
saw-dust. The soldiers and the people of the 
city, who found this state of things intoler- 
able, deserted continually to Cassander, let- 
ting themselves down by stealth in the night 
from the wall. Still Olympias would not sur- 
render; there was one more hope remaining 
for her. She contrived to dispatch a messen- 
ger to Polysperchon with a letter, asking him 
to send a galley round into the harbor at a 
certain time in the night, in order that she 
might get on board of it, and thus escape. 
Cassander intercepted this messenger. After 
reading the letter, he returned it to the mes- 
senger again, and directed him to go on and 
deliver it. The messenger did so, and Poly- 
sperchon sent the galley. Cassander, of 
course, watched for it, and seized it himself 
when it came. The last hope of the unhappy 
Olympias was thus extinguished, and she 
opened the gates and gave herself up to Cas- 
sander. The whole country immediately af- 
terward fell into Cassander's hands. 

The friends of the family of Antipater were 
now clamorous in their demands that Olym- 
pias should be brought to punishment for 
having so atrociously murdered the sons and 



CASSANDER. 63 

relatives of Antipater while she was in power. 
Olympias professed herself willing to be tried, 
and appealed to the Macedonian senate to be 
her judges. She relied on the ascendency 
which she had so long exercised over the 
minds of the Macedonians, and did not be- 
lieve that they would condemn her. Cassan- 
der himself feared that they would not; and 
although he was unwilling to murder her while 
she was a defenseless prisoner in his hands, he 
determined that she should die. He recom- 
mended to her secretly not to take the hazard 
of a trial, but to make her escape and go to 
Athens, and offered to give her an opportu- 
nity to do so. He intended, it was said, if she 
made the attempt, to intercept and slay her on 
the way as a fugitive from justice. She re- 
fused to accede to this proposal, suspecting, 
perhaps, Cassander's treachery in making it. 
Cassander then sent a band of two hundred 
soldiers to put her to death. 

These soldiers, when they came into the 
prison, were so impressed by the presence of 
the queen, to whom, in former years, they had 
been accustomed to look up with so much 
awe, that they shrank back from their duty, 
and for a time it seemed that no one would 
strike the blow. At length, however, some 

5— PyrrhuB 



64 



PYRRHUS. 



among the number, who were relatives of 
those that Olympias had murdered, succeed- 
ing in nerving their arms with the resolution 




Assassination of Olympias. 

of revenge, fell upon her and killed her with 
their swords. 

As for Roxana and the boy, Cassander kept 
them close prisoners for many yearjs; and 
finally, feeling more and more that his pos- 
session of the throne of Alexander was con- 
stantly endangered by the existence of a son 
of Alexander, caused them to be assassinated 
too. 




CHAPTER III. 



EARLY LIFE OF PYRRHUS. 



In the two preceding chapters we have re- 
lated that portion of the history of Macedonia 
which it is necessary to understand in order 
rightly to appreciate the nature of the difficul- 
ties in which the royal family of Epirus was 
involved at the time when Pyrrhus first ap- 
peared upon the stage. The sources of these 
difficulties were two : first, the uncertainty of 
the line of succession, there being two branch- 
es of the royal family, each claiming the 
throne, which state of things was produced, 
in a great measure, by the interposition of 
Olympias in the affairs of Epirus some years 
before; and, secondly, the act of Olympias in 
inducing ^acides to come to Macedon- 
ia, to embark in her quarrel against 
Cassander there. Of course, since there were 
two lines of princes, both claiming the throne, 
no sovereign of either line could hold any 
thing more than a divided empire over the 
hearts of his subjects; and consequently, 

when .^acides left the kingdom to fight the 

65 



66 

battles of Olympias in Macedon, it was coiii- 
Jjaratively easy for the party opposed to him 
tO' effect a revolution and raise their own 
prince to the throne. 

The prince whom Olympias had originally 
:n?de king of Epirus, to the exclusion of the 
claimant belonging to the other branch of the 
family, was her own brother. His name was 
Alexander. He was the son of Neoptolemus. 
The rival branch of the family were the child- 
ren of Arymbas, the brother of Neoptole- 
mus. This Alexander flourished at the same 
time as Alexander the Great, and in his char- 
acter very much resembled his distinguished 
namesake. He commenced a career of con- 
quest in Italy at the same time that his 
nephew embarked in his in Asia, and com- 
menced it, too, under very similar circum- 
stances. One went to the East, and another 
to the West, each determined to make himself 
master of the world. The Alexander of Ma- 
cedon succeeded. The Alexander of Epirus 
failed. The one acquired, consequently, uni- 
versal and perpetual renown, while the mem- 
ory of the other has been almost entirely neg- 
lected and forgotten. 

One reason, unquestionably, for the differ- 
ence in these results was the difference in the 



EARLY LIFE OF PYRRHUS. 67 

character of the enemies respectively against 
whom the two adventurers had to contend. 
Alexander of Epirus went westward into 
Italy, where he had to encounter the soldiery 
of the Romans — a soldiery of the most rug- 
ged, determined, and indomitable character. 
Alexander of Macedon, on the other hand, 
went to the East, where he found only Asiatic 
races to contend with, whose troops, though 
countless in numbers and magnificently ap- 
pointed in respect to all the purposes of par- 
ade and display, were yet enervated with lux- 
ury, and wholly unable to stand against any 
energetic and determined foe. In fact, Alex- 
ander of Epirus used to say that the 
reason why his nephew, Alexander of 
Macedon, had succeeded, while he him- 
self had failed, was because he himself had 
invaded countries peopled by men, while the 
Macedonian, in his Asiatic campaign, had en- 
countered only women. 

However this may be, the campaign of 
Alexander of Epirus in Italy had a very dis- 
astrous termination. The occasion of his go- 
ing there was a request which he had received 
from the inhabitants of Tarentum that he 
would come over and assist them in a war in 
which they were engaged with some neigh- 



68 PYRRHUS. 

boring tribes. Tarentum was a city situated 
toward the western shore of Italy. It was at 
the head of the deep bay called the Gulf of 
Tarentum, which bay occupies the hollow of 
the foot that the form of Italy presents to the 
eye as seen upon a map.* Tarentum was, ac- 
cordingly, across the Adriatic Sea from Epi- 
rus. The distance was about two hundred 
miles. By taking a southerly route, and go- 
ing up the Gulf of Tarentum, this distance 
might be traversed wholly by sea. A little to 
the north the Adriatic is narrow, the passage 
there being only about fifty miles across. To 
an expedition, however, taking this course, 
there would remain, after arriving on the Ital- 
ian shore, fifty miles or more to be accom- 
plished by land in order to reach Tarentum. 
Before deciding to comply with the re- 
quest of the Tarentines that he would come to 
their aid, Alexander sent to a celebrated ora- 
cle in Epirus, called the oracle of Dodona, to 
inquire Whether it would be safe for him to 
undertake the expedition. To his mquiries 
the oracle gave him this for an answer: 

"The waters of Acheron will be the cause of your 
death, and Pandosia is the place where you will die." 

*See map. 



EARLY LIFE OF PYRRHUS. 69 

Alexander was greatly rejoiced at receiving 
this answer. Acheron was a stream of Epirus, 
and Pandosia was a town upon the banks of 
it. He understood the response to mean that 
he was fated to die quietly in his own country 
at some future period, probably a remote one, 
and that there was no danger in his under- 
taking the expedition to Which he had been 
called. He accordingly set sail from Epirus, 
and landed in Italy; and there, believing that 
he was fated to die in Epirus, and not in Italy, 
he fought in every battle with the most des- 
perate and reckless bravery, and achieved 
prodigies of valor. The possibiUty that there 
might be an Acheron and a Pandosia in Italy, 
as well as in Epirus, did not occur to his 
mind. 

For a time he was very successful in his 
career. He fought battles, gained victories, 
conquered cities, and estabUshed his domin 
ion over quite an extended region. In order 
to hold what he had gained, he sent over a 
great number of hostages to Epirus, to be 
kept there as security for the continued sub- 
mission of those whom he had subdued. 
These hostages consisted chiefly, as was usual 
in such cases, of children. At length, in the 
course of the war, an occasion arose in which 



70 PYRRHUS. 

it was necessary, for the protection of his 
troops, to encamp them on three hills which 
were situated very near to each other. These 
hills were separated by low interval lands and 
a small stream ; but at the time when Alexan- 
der established his encampment, the stream 
constituted no impediment to free intercom- 
munication between the different divisions of 
his army. There came on, however, a power- 
ful rain ; the stream overflowed its banks ; the 
intervals were inundated. This enabled the 
enemy to attack two of Alexander's encamp- 
ments, w^hile it was utterly impossible for 
Alexander himself to render them any aid. 
The enemy made the attack, and were suc- 
cessful in it. The two camps were broken up, 
and the troops stationed in them were put to 
flight. Those that remained with Alexander, 
becoming discouraged by the hopeless condi- 
tion in which they found themselves placed, 
mutinied, and sent to the camp of the enemy, 
offering to dieliver up Alexander to them, 
dead or alive, as they should choose, on condi- 
tion that they themselves might be allowed 
to return to their native land in peace. This 
proposal was accepted ; but, before it was put 
in execution, Alexander, having dicoverci 
the plot, placed himself at the head of a de- 



EARLY LIFE OF PYRRHUS. 7I 

termined and desperate band of followers, 
broke through the ranks of the enemies that 
surrounded him, and made his escape toaneig'h- 
boring wood. From this wood he took a 
route which led him to a river, intending to 
pass the river by a bridge which he expected 
to find there, and then to destroy the bridge 
as soon as he had crossed it, so as to prevent 
his enemies from -following him. By this 
means he hoped to make his way to some 
place of safety. He found, on arriving at the 
brink of the stream, that the bridge had been 
carried away by the inundation. He, how- 
ever, pressed forward into the water on horse- 
back, intending to ford the stream. The tor- 
rent was wild, and the danger was imminent, 
but Alexander pressed on. At length one of 
the attendants, seeing his master in imminent 
danger of being drowned, exclaimed aloud, 
*'This cursed river! well is it named Ache- 
ron." The word Acheron, in the original 
language, signifies River of Sorrow. 

By this exclamation Alexander learned, for 
the first time, that the river he was crossing 
bore the same name with the one in Epirus, 
which he supposed had been referred to in the 
warning of the oracle. He was at once over- 
w^helmed with consternation. He did not 



y2 PYRRHUS. 

know whether to go forward or to return. 
The moment of indecision was suddenly end- 
ed by a loud outcry from his attendants, giv- 
ing the alarm that the traitors were close up- 
on him. Alexander then pushed forward 
across the water. He succeeded in gaining 
the bank; but as soon as he did so, a dart 
from one of his enemies reached him and 
killed him on the spot. His lifeless body fell 
back into the river, and was floated down the 
stream, until at length it reached the camp of 
the enemy, which happened to be on the bank 
of the stream below. Here it was drawn out 
of the water, and subjected to every possible 
indignity. The soldiers cut the body in two, 
and, sending one part to one of the cities as a 
trophy of their victory, they set up the other 
part in the camp as a target for the soldiers to 
shoot at with darts and javelins. 

At length a woman came into the camp, 
and, with earnest entreaties and many tears, 
begged the soldiers to give the mutilated 
corpse to her. Her object in wishing to ob- 
tain possession of it was, that she might send 
it home to Epirus, to the family of Alexander, 
and buy with it the liberty of her husband and 
her children, who were among the hostages 
which had been sent there. The soldiers ac- 



EARLY LIFE OF PYRRHUS. 73 

ceded to this request, and the parts of the 
body having been brought together again, 
were taken to Epirus, and dehvered to Olym- 
p*as, by whom the remains were honorably in- 
terred. We must presume that the woman 
who sent them obtained the expected reward, 
in the return of her husband and children, 
though of this we are not expressly informed. 

Of course, the disastrous result of this most 
unfortunate expedition had the effect, in Epi- 
rus, of diminishing very much the popularity 
and the strength of that branch of the royal 
family — namely, the line of Neop^tolemus — to 
w'hich Alexander had belonged. According- 
ly, instead of being succeeded by one of his 
brothers, zEacides, the father of Pyrrhus, 
v^ho was the representative of the other line, 
was permitted quietly to assume the crown. 
It might have been expected that Olympias 
would have opposed his accession, as she was 
herself a princess of the rival line. She did 
not, however, do so. On the contrary, she 
gave him her support, and allied herself to 
him very closely; and he, on his part, became 
in subsequent years one of her most devoted 
adherents and friends. 

When Olympias was shut up in Pydna by 
the army of Cassander, as was related in the 



74 PYRRHUS. 

last chapter, and sent far ^acides to come to 
her aid, he immediately raised an army and 
marched to the frontier. He found the passes 
in the mountains which led from Epirus to 
Macedonia all strongly guarded, but he still 
determined to force his way through. He 
soon, however, began to observe marks of 
discontent and dissatisfaction among the offi- 
cers of his army. These indications increas- 
ed, until at length the disafifection broke out 
into open mutiny, as stated in the last chapter, 
^acides then called his forces together, and 
gave orders that all who were unwilling to 
follow him into Macedon should be allowed 
freely to return. He did not wish, he said, 
that any should accompany him on such an 
expedition excepting those who went of their 
own free will. A considerable part of the army 
then returned, but, instead of repairing peace- 
ably to their homes, they raised a general in 
surrection in Epirus, and brought the family 
of Neoptolemus again to the throne. A solemn 
decree of the state was passed, declaring 
that ^acides, in withdrawing from the king- 
dom, had forfeited his crown, and banishing 
him forever from the country. And as this 
revolution was intended to operate, not mere- 
ly against ^acides personally, but against 



EARLY LIFE OF PYRRHUS. 75 

the branch of the royal family to which he be- 
longed, the new government deemed it nec- 
essary, in order to finish their work and make 
it sure, that many of his relatives and friends, 
and especially his infant son and heir, should 
die. Several of the members of ^acides' 
family were accordingly killed, though the at- 
tendants in charge succeeded in saving the life 
of the child by a sudden flight. 

The escape was effected by the instrument- 
ality of two of the officers of ^acides' house- 
hold, named Androclides and Angelus. 
These men, as soon as the alarm was given, 
hurried the babe away, with only such nurses 
and other attendants as it was necessary to 
take with them. The child was still unwean- 
ed; and though those in charge made the 
number of attendants as small as possible, still 
the party were necessarily of such a character 
as to forbid any great rapidity of flight. A 
troop was sent in pursuit of them, and soon 
began to draw near. When Androclides 
found that his party would be overtaken by 
the troop, he committed the child to the care 
of three young men, bidding them to ride on 
with him, at their utmost speed, to a certain 
town in Macedon, called Megarse, where they 
thought he would be safe; and then he him- 



76 PYRRHUS. 

self, and the rest of his company, turned back 
to meet the pursuers. They succeeded, partly 
by their representations and entreaties, and 
partly by such resistance and obstruction as it 
was in their power to make, in stopping the 
soldiers where they were. At length, having, 
though with some difficulty, succeeded in get- 
ting away from the soldiers, Androclides and 
Angelus rode on by secret ways till they over- 
took the three young men. They now began 
to think that the danger was over. At length, 
a little after sunset, they approached the town 
of Megarae. There was a river just before the 
town, which looked too rough and dreadful to 
be crossed. The party, however, advanced to 
the brink, and attempted to ford the stream, 
but they found it imposssible. It was grow- 
ing dark ; the water of the river, having been 
swelled by rains, was very high and boister- 
ous, and they found that they could not get 
over. At length they saw some of the people 
of the town coming down to the bank on the 
opposite side. They were in hopes that these 
people could render them some assistance in 
crossing the stream, and they began to call 
out to them for this purpose; but the stream 
ran so rapidly, and the roaring of the torrent 
was so great, that they could not make them- 



EARLY LIFE OF PYRRHUS. "Jj 

selves heard. The distance was very inconsid- 
erable, for the stream was not wide; but, 
though the party with Pyrrhus called aloud 
and earnestly, and made signs, holding up the 
child in their arms to let the people see him, 
they could not make themselves understood. 
At last, after spending some time in these 
fruitless efforts, one of the party who were 
were with Pyrrhus thought of the plan of writ- 
ing what they wished to say upon a piece of 
bark, and throwing it across the stream to 
those on the other side. They accordingly 
pulled off some bark from a young oak which 
was growing on a bank of the river, and suc- 
ceeded in making characters upon it by means 
of the tongue of a buckle, sufficient to say 
that they had with them Pyrrhus, the young 
prince of Epirus, and that they were flying 
with him to save his life, and to implore the 
people on the other side to contrive some way 
to get them over the river. This piece of bark 
they then managed to throw across 
the stream. Some say that they rolled 
it around a javelin, and then gave 
the javelin to the strongest of their party to 
throw; others say that they attached it \o a 
stone. In some way or other they contrived 
to give it a sufficient momentum to carry it 

6— Pyrrhus 



78 PYRRHUS. 

across the water ; and the people on the other 
side, when they obtained it, and read what was 
written upon it, were greatly excited by the 
tidings, and engaged at once with ardor and 
enthusiasm in efforts to save the child. 

They brought axes and began to cut down 
trees to make a raft. In due time the raft was 
completed; and, nothwithstanding the darkness 
of the night, and the force and swiftness of 
the current of the stream, the party of fugi- 
tives succeeded in crossing upon it, and thus 
brought the child and all the attendants ac- 
companying him safely over. 

The party with Pyrrhus did not intend to 
stop at Megarse. They did not consider it 
safe, in fact, for them to remain in any part 
of Macedon, not knowing what course the war 
between Polysperchon and Cassander would 
take there, or how the parties engaged in the 
contest might stand affected toward Pyrrhus. 
They determined, therefore, to press forward 
in their flight till they had passed through 
Macedon, and reached the country beyond. 

The country north of Macedon, on the west- 
ern coast, the one in which they determined to 
seek refuge, was Illyria. The name of the king 
of Illyria was Glaucias. They had reason to 
believe that Glaucias would receive and pro- 



EARLY LIFE OF PYRRHUS. 79 

tect the child, for he was connected by mar- 
riage with the royal family of Epirus, his wife, 
Beroa, being a princess of the line of Msici- 
des. When the fugitives arrived at the court 
of Glaucias, they went to the palace, where 
they found Glaucias and Beroa ; and, after tell- 
ing the story of their danger and escape, they 
laid the child down as a suppliant at the feet 
of the king. 

Glaucias felt not a little embarrassed at the 
situation in which he was placed, and did not 
know what to do. He remained for a long 
time silent. At length, little Pyrrhus, who was 
all the while lying at his feet, began to creep 
closer toward him ; and, finally, taking hold 
of the king's robe, he began to climb up by it, 
and attempted to get into his lap, looking up 
into the king's face, at the same time, with a 
countenance in which the expression of con- 
fidence and hope was mingled with a certain 
instinctive infantile fear. The heart of the 
king was so touched by this mute appeal, that 
he took the child up in his arms, dismissed at 
once all prudential considerations from his 
mind, and, in the end, delivered the boy to 
the queen, Beroa, directing her to bring him 
up with her own children. 

Cassander soon discovered the place of Pyr- 



8o PYRRHUS. 

rhus's retreat, and he made great efforts to in- 
duce Glaucias to give him up. He offered 
Glaucias a very large sum of money if he would 
deliver Pyrrhus into his hands; but Glaucias 
refused to do it. Cassander v^ould, perhaps, 
have made v^^ar upon Glaucias to compel him 
to comply with this requisition, but he was 
then fully occupied with the enemies that 
threatened him in Greece and Macedon. He 
did, subsequently, make an attempt to invade 
the dominions of Glaucias, and to get posses- 
sion of the person of Pyrrhus, but the expedi- 
tion failed, and after that the boy was allowed 
to remain in Illyria without any further mol- 
estation. 

Time passed on, until at length Pyrrhus 
was twelve years old. During this interval 
great changes took place in the affairs of Cas- 
sander in Macedon. At first he was very suc- 
cessful in his plans. He succeeded in expell- 
ing Polysperchon from the country, and in es- 
tablishing himself as king. He caused Rox- 
ana and the young Alexander to be assassin- 
ated, as was stated in the last chapter, so as to 
remove out of the way the only persons who 
he supposed could ever advance any rival 
claims to the throne. For a time every thing 
went well and prosperously with him, but at 



£:arly life of pyrrhus. 8i 

length the tide of his affairs seemed to turn, 
A new enemy appeared against him in Asia — 
a certain distinguished commander, named 
Demetrius, who afterward became one of the 
most illustrious personages of his age. Just 
at this time, too, the king of Epirus, Alcetus, 
the prince of the family of Neoptolemus, who 
had reigned during Pyrrhus's exile in Illyria, 
died. Glaucias deemed this a favorable op- 
portunity for restoring Pyrrhus to the throne. 
He accordingly placed himself at the head of 
an army, and marched into Epirus, taking the 
young prince with him. No effectual resist- 
ance was made, and Pyrrhus was crowned 
king. He was, of course, too young actually 
to reign, and a sort of regent was according- 
ly established in power, with authority to gov- 
ern the country in the young king's name un- 
til he should come of age. 

This state of things could not be very stable. 
It endured about five years; and during this 
time Pyrrhus seemed to be very firmly es- 
tablished in power. The strength of his po- 
sition, however, was more apparent than real ; 
for the princes of the other branch of the 
family, who had been displaced by Pyrrhus's 
return to power, were of course discontented 
and restless all the time. They were contin- 



82 PYRRHUS. 

ually forming plots and conspiracies, and were 
only waiting for an opportunity to effect an- 
other revolution. The opportunity at length 
came. One of the sons of Glaucias was to 
be married. Pyrrhus had been the compan- 
ion and playmate of this prince, during his 
residence in Illyria, and was, of course, in- 
vited to the wedding. Supposing that all was 
safe in his dominions, he accepted the invita- 
tion and went to Illyria. While he was there, 
amusing himself in the festivities and rejoic- 
ings connected with the wedding, his rivals 
raised a rebellion, took possession of the gov- 
ernment, and of all of Pyrrhus's treasures, kill- 
ed or put to flight his partisans and friends, 
and raised a prince of the family of Neoptole- 
mus to the throne. Pyrrhus found himself 
once more an exile. 

The revolution in Epirus was so complete, 
that, after careful consideration and inquiry, 
Pyrrhus could see, with the resources he had 
at his command, no hope of recovering his 
throne. But, being of an ambitious and rest- 
less spirit, he determined not to remain idle; 
and he concluded, therefore, to enter into the 
service of Demetrius in his war against Cas- 
sander. There were two considerations which 
led him to do this. In the first place, Cassan- 



EARLY LIFE OF PYRRHUS. 83 

der was his most formidable enemy, and the 
pros2ect of his being ultimately restored again 
to his throne would depend almost entirely, 
he well knew, upon the possibility of destroy- 
ing, or at least curtailing, Cassander's power. 
Then, besides, Demetrius was especially his 
friend. The wife of Demetrius was Deidamia, 
the sister of Pyrrhus, so that Pyrrhus looked 
upon Demetrius as his natural ally. He ac- 
cordingly offered to enter the service of De- 
metrius, and was readily received. In fact, 
notwithstanding his youth — for he was now 
only seventeen or eighteen years of age — De- 
metrius gave him a very important command 
in his army, and took great pains to instruct 
him in the art of war. It was not long before 
an opportunity was afforded to make trial of 
Pyrrhus's capacity as a soldier. A great battle 
was fought at Ipsus, in Asia Minor, between 
Demetrius on one side and Cassander on the 
other. Besides these two commanders, there 
were many princes and generals of the highest 
rank who took part in the contest as allies of 
the principal combatants, which had the effect 
of making the battle a very celebrated one, 
and of causing it to attract very strongly the 
attention of all mankind at the time when it oc- 
curred. The result of the contest was, on the 



84 PYRRHUS. 

whole, unfavorable to the cause of Demetrius. 
His troops, generally, were compelled to give 
way, though the division which Pyrrhus com- 
manded retained their ground. Pyrrhus, in 
fact, acquired great renown by his courage and 
energy, and perhaps still more by his success 
on this occasion. Young as he was, Demetrius 
immediately gave him a new and very re- 
sponsible command, and intrusted to him the 
charge of several very important expeditions 
and campaigns, in all of which the young sol- 
dier evinced such a degree of energy and 
courage, combined, too, with so much fore- 
thought, prudence, and military skill, as pre- 
saged very clearly his subsequent renown. 

At length an alliance was formed between 
Demetrius and Ptolemy, king of Egypt, and 
as security for the due execution of the obliga- 
ticMis assumed by Demetrius in the treaty 
which they made, Ptolemy demanded a hos- 
tage. Pyrrhus offered to go himself to Egypt 
in this capacity. Ptolemy accepted him, and 
Pyrrhus was accordingly taken in one of 
Ptolemy's ships across the Mediterranean to 
Alexandria. 

In Egypt the young prince was, of course, 
an object of universal attention and regard. 
He was tall and handsome in person, agree- 



EARLY LIFE OF PYRRHUS. 85 

able in manners, and amiable and gentle in 
disposition. His royal rank, the fame of the 
exploits which he had performed, the misfor- 
tunes of his early years, and the strange and 
romantic adventures through which he had 
passed, all conspired to awaken a deep inter 
est in his favor at the court of Ptolemy. The 
situation of a hostage, too, is always one 
which strongly attracts the sympathy and 
kind feelings of those who hold him in cus. 
tody. A captive is regarded in some sense as 
an enemy ; and though his hard lot may awak- 
en a certain degree of pity and commiseration, 
still the kind feeling is always modified by 
the fact that the object of it, after all, though 
disarmed and helpless, is still a foe. A hos- 
tage, however, is a friend. He comes as se- 
curity for the faithfulness of a friend and an 
ally, so that the sympathy and interest which 
are felt for him as an exile from his native 
land, are heightened by the circumstance that 
his position makes him naturally an object of 
friendly regard. 

The attachment which soon began to be 
felt for Pyrrhus in the court of Ptolemy was 
increased by the excellent conduct and de- 
meanor which he exhibited while he was there. 
He was very temperate and moderate in his 



86 



PYRRHUS. 



pleasures, and upright and honorable in all 
his doings. In a word, he made himself a gen- 
eral favorite ; and after a year or two he mar- 
ried Antigone, a princess of the royal family. 
From being a hostage he now became a guest, 
and shortly afterward Ptolemy fitted out an 
expedition to proceed to Epirus and restore 
him to his throne. On arriving in Epirus, 
Pyrrhus found every thing favorable to the 
success of his plans. The people of the coun- 
try had become discontented with the govern- 
ment of the reigning king, and were very will- 
ing to receive Pyrrhus in his place. The re- 
volution was easily effected, and Pyrrhus was 
thus once more restored to his throne. 




Demetrius 



Ptolemy. 



Am 


8^^»S^ 


M 



CHAPTER IV. 



WARS IN MACEDON. 

The prince whom Pyrrhus displaced from 
the throne of Epirus on his return from Egypt, 
as narrated in the last chapter, was, of course, 
of the family of Neoptolemus. His own name 
was Neoptolemus, and he was the second son 
of the Neoptolemus who gave his name to the 
line. 

Pyrrhus exercised an uncommon degree of 
moderation in his victory over his rival; for, 
instead of taking his life, or even banishing 
him. from the kingdom, he treated him with 
respectful consideration, and offered, very gen- 
erously, as it would seem, to admit him to a 
share of the regal power. Neoptolemus ac- 
cepted this proposal, and the two kings 
reigned conjointly for a considerable time. A 
difficulty, however, before long occurred, 
which led to an open quarrel, the result of 
which was that Neoptolemus was slain. The 
circumstances, as related by the historians of 
the time, were as follows: 

It seems that it was the custom of the people 

87 



88 PYRRHUS. 

of Epirus to celebrate an annual festival at a 
certain city in the kingdom, for the purpose 
chiefly of renewing the oaths of allegiance on 
the one part, and of fealty on the other, be- 
tween the people and the king. Of course, 
there were a great many games and spectacles, 
as well as various religious rites and ceremon- 
'ies, connected with this celebration; and 
among other usages which prevailed, it was 
the custom for the people to bring presents to 
the king on the occasion. When the period 
for this celebration recurred, after Pyrrhus's 
restoration to the throne, both Pyrrhus and 
Neoptolemus, each attended by his own par- 
ticular followers and friends, repaired to the 
city where the celebration was to be held, and 
commenced the festivities. 

Among other donations which were made 
to Pyrrhus at this festival, he received a pres- 
ent of two yoke of oxen from a certain man 
named Gelon, who was a particular friend of 
Neoptolemus. It appears that it was the cus- 
tom for the kings to dispose of many of the 
presents which they received on these occa- 
sions from the people of the country, by giv- 
ing them to their attendants and the officers 
of their households ; and a certain cup-bearer, 
named Myrtilus, begged Pyrrhus to give these 



WARS IN MACEDON. 8q 

oxen to him. Pyrrhus declined this request, 
but afterward gave the oxen to another man. 
Myrtilus was offended at this, and uttered pri- 
vately many murmurings and complaints. 
Gelon, perceiving this, invited Myrtilus to sup 
with him. In the course of the supper, he 
attempted to excite still more the ill-will which 
Myrtilus felt toward Pyrrhus ; and finding that 
he appeared to succeed in doing this, he fin 
ally proposed to Myrtilus to espouse the cause 
of Neoptolemus, and join in a plot for poison- 
ing Pyrrhus. His office as cup-bearer would 
enable him, Gelon said, to execute such a de- 
sign without difficulty or danger, and, by do- 
ing it, he would so commend himself to the 
regard of Neoptolemus, that he might rely on 
the most ample and abundant rewards. Myr- 
tilus appeared to receive these proposals with 
great favor; he readily promised to embark 
in the plot, and promised to fulfill the part as- 
signed him in the execution of it. When the 
proper time arrived, after the conclusion of 
the supper, Myjtilus took leave of Gelon, and, 
proceeding directly to Pyrrhus, he related to 
him all that had occurred. 

Pyrrhus did not take any rash or hasty 
measures in the emergency, for he knew very 
well that if Gelon were to be then charged 



90 PYRRHUS. 

with the crime which he had proposed to com- 
mit, he would deny having ever proposed it, 
and that then there would be only the word of 
Myrtilus against that of Gelon, and that im- 
partial men would have no positive means of 
deciding between them. He thought, there- 
fore, very wisely, that, before taking any de- 
cided steps, it would be necessary to obtain 
additional proof that Gelon had really made 
the proposal. He accordingly directed Myr- 
tilus to continue to pretend that he favored the 
plan, and to propose to Gelon to invite another 
cup-bearer, named Alexicrates, to join the 
plot. Alexicrates was to be secretly instruct- 
ed to appear ready to enter into the conspir- 
acy when he should be called upon, and thus, 
as Pyrrhus expected, the testimony of two wit- 
nesses would be obtained to Gelon's guilt. 

It happened, however, that the necessary 
evidence against Gelon was furnished without 
a resort to this measure; for when Gelon re- 
ported to Neoptolemus that Myrtilus had ac- 
ceded to his proposal to join him in a plan for 
removing Pyrrhus out of the way, Neoptole- 
mus was so much overjoyed at the prospect of 
recovering the throne to his own family again, 
that he could not refrain from revealing the 
plan to certain members of the family, and, 



WARS IN MACEDON. 9I 

among others, to his sister Cadmia. At the 
time when he thus discovered the design to 
Cadmia, he supposed that nobody was within 
hearing. The conversation took place in an 
apartment where he had been supping with 
Cadmia, and it happened that there was a ser- 
vant-woman lying upon a couch in the corner 
of the room at the time, with her face to the 
wall, apparently asleep. She was, in reality, 
not asleep, and she overheard all the conver- 
sation. She lay still, however, and did not 
speak a word; but the next day she went to 
Antigone, the wife of Pyrrhus, and communi- 
cated to her all that she had heard. Pyrrhus 
now considered the evidence that Neoptolemus 
was plotting his destruction as complete, and 
he determined to take decisive measures to 
prevent it. He accordingly invited Neoptole- 
mus to a banquet. Neoptolemus, suspecting 
nothing, came, and Pyrrhus slew him at the 
table. Henceforward Pyrrhus reigned in Epir- 
us alone. 

Pyrrhus was now about twenty-three years 
of age, and inasmuch as, with all his modera- 
tion in respect to the pursuit of youthful pleas- 
ures, he was of a very ambitious and aspiring 
disposition, he began to form schemes and 
plans for the enlargement of his power. An 



gZ PYRRHUS. 

Opportunity was soon afforded him to enter 
upon a military career. Cassander, who had 
made himself King of Macedon in the man- 
ner already described, died about the time 
that Pyrrhus established himself on his throne 
in Epirus. He left two sons, Alexander and 
Antipater. These brothers immediately quar- 
reled, each claiming the inheritance of their 
father's crown. Antipater proved to be the 
strongest in the struggle; and Alexander, 
finding that he could not stand his ground 
against his brother without aid, sent messen- 
gers at the same time to Pyrrhus, and also to 
Demetrius, in Thessaly, calling upon both to 
come to his assistance. They both determined 
to do so. Demetrius, however, was engaged 
in some enterprises which detained him for a 
time, but Pyrrhus immediately put himself at 
the head of his army, and prepared to cross 
the frontier. 

The commencement of this march marks an 
important era in the life of Pyrrhus, for it was 
now for the first time that he had an army 
wholly under his command. In all the former 
military operations in which he had been en- 
gaged, he had been only a general, acting 
under the orders of his superiors. Now he 
was an independent sovereign, leading forth 



WARS IN MACEDON. 93 

his own troops to battle, and responsible to 
no one for the manner in which he exercised 
his power. The character which he displayed 
in this new capacity was such as very soon to 
awaken the admiration of all his troops, and 
to win their affection in a very strong degree. 
His fine personal appearance, his great 
strength and dexterity in all martial exer- 
cises, his kind consideration for his soldiers, 
the systematic and skillful manner in which 
all his arrangements were made, and a cer- 
tain nobleness and generosity of character 
which he displayed on many occasions, all 
combined to make him an object of universal 
favor and regard. 

Various anecdotes were related of him in 
camp, which evinced the superiority of his 
mind, and that peculiar sense of confidence 
and strength which so often accompanies 
greatness. At one time a person was accused 
of being disaffected toward him, and of being 
in the habit of speaking evil of him on all oc- 
casions ; and some of his counselors proposed 
that the offender should be banished. *'No," 
said Pyrrhus; ''let him stay here, and speak 
evil of me only to a few, instead of being sent 
away to ramble about and give me a bad char- 
acter to all the world.'' At another time, some 

7— Pyrrhu3 



94 PYRRHUS. 

persons, when half intoxicated, at a convivial 
entertainment, had talked very freely in cen 
sure of something which Pyrrhus had done. 
They were called to account for it; and when 
asked by Pyrrhus whether it was true that 
they had really said such things, they replied 
that it was true. "And there is no doubt,'' 
they added, "that we should have said things 
a great deal worse if we had had more wine.' 
Pyrrhus laughed at this reply, and dismissed 
the culprits without any punishment. These, 
and other similar indications of the magnan 
imity which marked the general's character 
made a great and very favorable impression 
upon the minds of all under his command. 

Possessing thus, in a very high degree, the 
confidence and affection of his troops, Pyrrhus 
was able to inspire them with his own ardor 
and impetuosity when they came to engage 
in battle, and his troops were victorious in al- 
most every conflict. Wherever he went, he 
reduced the country into subjection to Alex- 
ander, and drove Antipater before him. He 
left garrisons of his own in the towns which 
he captured, so as to make his conquests se 
cure, and in a short time the prospect seemed 
certain that Antipater would be expelled from 



WARS IN MACEDON. 95 

the country, and Alexander placed upon the 
throne. 

In this crisis of their affairs, some of the 
allies of Antipater conceived the design of cir- 
cumventing their enemy by artifice, since it 
appeared that he W2is so superior to them in 
force. They knew how strong was his feel- 
ing of reverence and regard for Ptolemy, the 
King of Egypt, his father-in-law, and they ac- 
cordingly forged a letter to him in Ptolemy's 
name, enjoining him to make peace with An- 
tipater, and withdrew from Macedon, Anti- 
pater, the letter said, was willing to pay him 
three hundred talents of silver in consideration 
of his doing so, and the letter strongly urged 
him to accede to this offer, and evacuate the 
kingdom. 

It was much less difficult to practice a suc- 
cessful deception of this kind in ancient days 
than it is now, for then writing was usually 
performed by scribes trained for the purpose, 
and there was therefore seldom any thing in 
the handwriting of a communication to deter- 
mine the question of its authenticity. Pyrrhus, 
however, detected the imposition which was 
attempted in this case the moment that he 
opened the epistle. It began with the words, 
''King Ptolemy to King Pyrrhu.s, greeting;'* 



96 PYRRHUS. 

whereas the genuine letters of Ptolemy to his 
son-in-law were always commenced thus: 
''The father to his son, greeting/' 

Pyrrhus upbraided the contrivers of this 
fraud in severe terms for their attempt to de- 
ceive him. Still, he entertained the propos- 
ition that they made, and some negotiations 
were entered into, with a view to an amicable 
settlement of the dispute. In the end, how- 
ever, the negotiations failed, and the war was 
continued until Alexander was established on 
his throne. Pyrrhus then returned to his own 
kingdom. He received, in reward for his ser- 
vices in behalf of Alexander, a grant of that 
part of the Macedonian territory which lies 
upon the coast of the Adriatic Sea, north of 
Epirus ; and thus peace was restored, and all 
things seemed permanently settled. 

It will be recollected, perhaps, by the reader, 
that at the time that Alexander sent for Pyr- 
rhus to assist him, he had also sent for Deme- 
trius, who had been in former years the ally 
and friend of Pyrrhus. In fact, Deidamia, the 
sister of Pyrrhus, was Demetrius's wife. De- 
metrius had been engaged with the affairs of 
his own government at the time that he re- 
ceived this message, and was not then ready 
to grant the desired aid. But after a time, 



WARS IN MACEDON. 97 

when he had settled his own affairs, he placed 
himself at the head of an army and went to 
Macedon. It was now, however, too late, and 
Alexander was sorry to learn that he was com- 
ing. He had already parted with a consider- 
able portion of his kingdom to repay Pyrrhus 
for his aid, and he feared that Demetrius, if he 
were allowed to enter the kingdom, would 
not be satisfied without a good part of the re- 
mainder. 

He accordingly advanced to meet Demetrius 
at the frontier. Here, at an interview which 
he held with him, he thanked him for his kind- 
ness in coming to his aid, but said that his as- 
sistance would now not be required. Deme- 
trius said that it was very well, and so pre- 
pared to return. Alexander, however, as De- 
metrius afterward alleged, did not intend to 
allow him to withdraw, but formed a plan to 
murder him at supper to which he designed 
to invite him. Demetrius avoided the fate 
v\^hfch was intended for him by going away 
unexpectedly from the supper before Alexan- 
der had time to execute his plan. Afterward, 
Demetrius invited Alexander to a supper. 
Alexander came unarmed and unprotected, in 
order to set his guest an example of uncon- 
cern, in hopes that Demetrius would come 



98 PYRRHUS. 

equally defenseless to a second entertainment 
which he had prepared for him the next day, 
and at which he intended to adopt such meas- 
ures that his guest should not be able by any 
possibility to escape. Demetrius, however, 
did not wait for the second attempt, but or- 
dered his servants to kill Alexander, and all 
who were with him, while they were at his 
table. One of Alexander's men, when the at- 
tack was made upon them, said, as the soldiers 
of Demetrius were stabbing him, "You are 
too quick for us by just one day." 

The Macedonian troops, whom Alexander 
had brought with him to the frontier, when 
they heard of the murder of their king, ex- 
pected that Demetrius would come upon them 
at once, with all his army, and cut them to 
pieces. But instead of this, Demetrius sent 
them word that he did not intend them any 
harm, but wished, on the contrary, for an op- 
portunity to explain and justify to them what 
he had done. He accordingly met them, and 
made a set harangue, in which he related the 
circumstances which led him to take the life 
of Alexander, and justified it as an act of self- 
defense. This discourse was received with 
great applause, and the Macedonian soldiers 
immediately hailed Demetrius king. 



WARS IN MACEDON. 99 

How far there was any truth in the charge 
which Demetrius brought against Alexander 
of intending to kill him, it is, of course, im- 
possible to say. There was no evidence of the 
fact, nor could there be any evidence but such 
as Demetrius might easily fabricate. It is the 
universal justification that is offered in every 
age by the perpetrators of political crimes, 
that they were compelled to perform them- 
selves the deeds of violence and cruelty for 
which they are condemned, in order to antici 
pate and preclude the performance of similar 
deeds on the part of their enemies. 

Demetrius and Pyrrhus were now neigh- 
boring kings, and, from the friendly relations 
which had subsisted between them for so many 
years, it might, perhaps, be supposed that the 
two kingdoms which they respectively ruled 
would enjoy, from this time, a permanent and 
settled peace, and maintain the most amicable 
intercourse with each other. But the reverse 
was the fact. Contentions and quarrels arose 
on the frontiers. Each nation complained 
that the borderers of the other made inroads 
over the frontier. Demetrius and Pyrrhus 
gradually got drawn into these disputes. Un 
fortunately for the peace of the two countries, 
Deidamia died, and the strong band of union 



rOO PYRRHUS. 

which she had formed between the two reign- 
ing families was sundered. In a word, it was 
not long before Pyrrhus and Demetrius came 
to open war. 

The war, however, which thus broke out 
between Demetrius and Pyrrhus did not arise 
wholly from accidental collisions occurring 
on the frontiers. Demetrius was a man of 
the most violent and insatiable ambition, and 
wholly unscrupulous in respect to the means 
of gratifying the passion. Before his difficul- 
ties with Pyrrhus began, he had made expedi- 
tions southwardly into Greece, and had finally 
succeeded in reducing a large portion of that 
country to his sway. He, however, at one 
time, in the course of his campaigns in Greece, 
narrowly escaped a very sudden termination 
of his career. He was besieging Thebes, one 
of the principal cities of Greece, and one whicn 
was obstinately determined not to submit to 
him. In fact, the inhabitants of the city had 
given him some special cause of offense, so 
that he was excessively angry with them, and 
though for a long time he made very little 
progress in prosecuting the siege, he was de- 
termined not to give up the attempt. At one 
period, he was himself called away from the 
place for a time, to engage in some military 



WARS IN MACEDON. lOI 

duty demanding his attention in Thessaly, and 
during his absence he left his son to conduct 
the siege. On his return to Thebes, he found 
that, through the energetic and obstinate re- 
sistance which was made by the people of 
Thebes, great numbers of his men were con- 
tinually falling — so much so, that his son be- 
gan to remonstrate with him against allowing 
so great and so useless a slaughter to go on. 
"Consider,'' said he, ''why you should expose 
so many of your valiant soldiers to such sure 
destruction, when — " 

Here Demetrius, in a passion, interrupted 
him, saying, ''Give yourself no concern about 
how many of the soldiers are killed. The 
more there are killed, the fewer you will have 
to provide subsistence for!'* 

The brutal recklessness, however, which 
Demetrius thus evinced in respect to the 
slaughter of his troops was not attended, as 
such a feeling often is, with any cowardly un- 
willingness to expose himself to danger. He 
mingled personally in the contests that took 
place about the walls of the city, and hazarded 
his own life as freely as he required his sol- 
diers to hazard theirs. At length, on one oc- 
casion, a javelin thrown from the wall struck 
him in the neck, and, passing directly through, 



I02 PYRRHUS. 

felled him to the ground. He was taken up for 
dead, and borne to his tent. It was then found, 
on examination, that no great artery or other 
vital part had been wounded, and yet in a 
very short time a burning fever supervened, 
and for some time the life of Demetrius was 
in imminent danger. He still, however, re- 
fused to abandon the siege. At length, he re- 
covered from the effects of his wound, and, 
in the end, the city surrendered. 

It was on the return of Demetrius to Mace- 
don, after the close of his successful campaign 
in Greece, that the war between him and Pyr- 
rhus broke out. As soon as it appeared that 
actual hostilities were inevitable, both parties 
collected an army and prepared for the con- 
flict. 

They marched to meet each other, Pyrrhus 
from Epirus, and Demetrius from Macedon. 
It happened, however, that they took different 
routes, and thus passed each other on the 
frontier. Demetrius entered Epirus, and found 
the whole country open and defenseless be- 
fore him, for the military force of the country 
was all with Pyrrhus, and had passed into 
Macedon by another way. Demetrius ad- 
vanced accordingly, as far as he chose, into 



WARS IN MACEDON. IO3 

Pyrrhus's territories, capturing and plunder- 
ing every thing that came in his way. 

Pyrrhus himself, on the other hand, met 
with quite a different reception. Demetrius 
had not taken all his army with him, but had 
left a large detachment under the command 
of a general named Pantauchus, to defend the 
country during his absence. Pyrrhus en- 
countered Pantauchus as he entered Macedon, 
and gave him battle. A very hard-fought and 
obstinate conflict ensued. In the course of it, 
Pantauchus challenged Pyrrhus to single com- 
bat. He was one of the most distinguished of 
Demetrius's generals, being celebrated above 
all the officers of the army for his dexterity, 
strength, and courage; and, as he was a man 
of very high and ambitious spirit, he was 
greatly pleased with the opportunity of dis- 
tinguishing himself that was now before him. 
He conceived that a personal rencounter with 
so great a commander as Pyrrhus would add 
very much to his renown. 

Pyrrhus accepted the challenge. The pre- 
liminary arrangements were made. The com- 
batants came out into the field, and, as they 
advanced to the encounter, they hurled their 
javelins at each other before they met, and 
then rushed forward to a close and mortal 



104 PYRRHUS. 

combat with swords. The fight continued for 
a long time. Pyrrhus himself received a 
wound ; but, notwithstanding this, he suc- 
ceeded in bringing his antagonist to the 
ground, and would have killed him, had not 
the friends of Pantauchus rushed on and res- 
cued him from the danger. A general battle 
between the two armies ensued, in which Pyr- 
rhus was victorious. The army of Pantau- 
chus was totally routed, and five thousand 
men were taken prisoners. 

The Macedonian troops whom Pyrrhus thus 
defeated, instead of being maddened with re- 
sentment and anger against their conqueror, 
as it might have been expected they would be, 
were struck with a sentiment of admiration for 
him. They applauded his noble appearance 
and bearing on the field, and the feats of cour- 
age and strength which he performed. There 
was a certain stern and lofty simplicity in his 
air and demeanor which reminded them, as 
they said, of Alexander the great, whom many 
of the old soldiers remembered. They com- 
pared Pyrrhus in these respects with Deme- 
trius, their own sovereign, greatly to the dis- 
advantage of the latter ; and so strong was the 
feeling which was thus excited in Pyrrhus's 
favor, that it was thought at the time that, if 




ryrrUus,facep. 10& 

Pyrrhus Slays Neoptolomeus. {See p. 91.) 



WARS IN MACEDON. IO3 

Pyrrhus had advanced toward the capital with 
a view to the conquest of the country, the 
whole army would have gone over at once to 
his side, and that he might have made himself 
king of Macedon without any further diffi- 
culty or trouble. He did not do this, however, 
but withdrew again to Epirus when Demetrius 
came back into Macedonia. The Macedonians 
were by no means pleased to see Demetrius 
return. 

In fact, Demetrius was beginning to be gen- 
erally hated by all his subjects, being regard- 
ed by them all as a conceited and cruel tyrant. 
He was not only unscrupulously ambitious in 
respect to the dominions of his neighbors, but 
he was unjust and overbearing in his treat- 
ment of his own friends. Pyrrhus, on the 
other hand, was kind and courteous to his 
army, both to the officers and soldiers. He liv- 
ed in habits of great simplicity, and shared the 
hardships as well as the toils of those who 
were under his command. He gave them, too, 
their share of the glory which he acquired, by 
attributing his success to their courage and 
fidelity. At one time, after some brilliant 
campaign in Macedon, some persons in his 
army compared his progress to the flight of an 
eagle. ''If I am an eagle," said he in reply, 



Io6 PYRRHUS. 

"I owe it to you, for you are the wings by 
means of which I have risen so high/' 

Demetrius, on the other hand, treated the 
officers and men under his command with a 
species of haughtiness and disdain. He 
seemed to regard them as very far beneath 
him, and to take pleasure in making them 
feel his vast superiority. He was vain and 
foppish in his dress, expended great sums in 
the adornment of his person, decorating his 
robes and vestments, and even his shoes, with 
gold and precious stones. In fact, he caused 
the manufacture of a garment to be com- 
menced which he intended should outvie in 
magnificence and in costly adornments all that 
had ever before been fabricated. This gar- 
ment was left unfinished at the time of his 
death, and his successors did not attempt 
to complete it. They preserved it, however, 
for a very long time as a curiosity, and as a 
memorial of vanity and folly. 

Demetrius, too, was addicted to many vices, 
being accustomed to the unrestrained indul- 
gence of his appetites and propensities in every 
form. It was in part owing to these excesses 
that he became so hateful in manners and 
character, the habitual indulgence of his ani- 
mal appetites and propensities having had the 



WARS IN MACEDON. IO7 

effect of making him morose and capricious 
in mind. 

The hostility between Pyrrhus and Deme- 
trius was very much increased and aggravated 
at one time by a difficulty in which a lady was 
concerned. Antigone, the first wife of Pyr- 
rhus, died, and after her death Pyrrhus mar- 
ried two or three other wives, according to the 
custom which prevailed in those days among 
the Asiatic kings. Among these wives was 
Lknassa, the daughter of Agathocles, the king 
of Syracuse. The marriage of Pyrrhus with 
Antigone was apparently prompted by affec- 
tion ; but his subsequent alliances seem to have 
been simply measures of governmental policy, 
designed only to aid him in extending his do- 
minions or strengthening his power. His in- 
ducement for marrying Lanassa was to ob 
tain the island of Corcyra, which the King of 
Syracuse, who held that island at that time 
under his dominion, was willing to give to his 
daughter as her dowry. Now the island oc 
Corcyra, as will be seen from the map, was 
off the coast of Epirus, and very near, so that 
the possession of it would add very consider- 
ably to the value of Pyrrhus's dominion. 

Lanassa was not happy as Pyrrhus's bride . 
In fact, to have been married for the sake of 

8— Pyrrhua 



I08 PYRRHUS. 

an island brought as dowry, and to be only 
one of several wives after all, would not seem 
to be circumstances particularly encouraging 
in respect to the promise of conjugal bliss. 
Lanassa complained that she was neglected ; 
that the other wives received attentions which 
were not accorded to her. At last, when she 
found that she could endure the vexations and 
trials of her condition no longer, she left her 
husband and went back to Corcyra, and then 
sent an invitation to Demetrius to come and 
take possession of the island, and marry her. 
In a word, she divorced herself and resumed 
possession of her dowry, and considered her- 
herself at liberty to dispose of both her per- 
son and property anew. 

Demetrius accepted the offer which was 
made him. He went to Corcyra, married Lan- 
assa, and then, leaving a garrison to protect 
the island from any attempt which Pyrrhus 
might make to recover it, he went back to 
Macedon. Of course, after this transaction, 
Pyrrhus was more incensed against Demetrius 
than ever. 

Very soon after this Pyrrhus had an oppor- 
tunity to revenge himself for the injury which 
Demetrius had done him. Demetrius was 
sick ; he had brought on a fever by excessive 



WARS IN MACEDON. IO9 

drinking. Pyrrhus determined to take advan- 
tage of the occasion to make a new invasion of 
Macedonia. He accordingly crossed the fron- 
tier at the head of a numerous army. Deme- 
trius, sick as he was, mounted on horseback, 
and put himself at the head of his forces to go 
out to meet his enemy. Nothing important 
resulted from this campaign; but, after some 
ineffectual attempts at conquest, Pyrrhus re- 
turned to his own country. 

In this way the war between Pyrrhus and 
Demetrius was protracted for many years, 
with varying success, one party being some- 
times triumphant, and sometimes the other. 
At last, at a time when the tide of fortune 
seemed inclined to turn against Pyrrhus, some 
circumstances occurred which were the means 
of attracting his attention strongly in another 
direction, and ended in introducing him to a 
new and very brilliant career in an altogether 
different region. These circumstances, and 
the train of events to which they led, will form 
the subject of the following chapter. 





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CHAPTER V. 



WAR IN ITALY. 



The grand undertaking in which Pyrrh-us 
now engaged, as indicated in the last chapter, 
the one in which he acquired such great re- 
nown, was an expedition into Italy against the 
Romans. The immediate occasion of his em- 
barking in this enterprise was an invitation 
he received from the inhabitants of Tarentum 
to come to their aid.* His predecessor, Alex- 
ander, had been drawn into Italy precisely in 
the same way; and we might have supposed 
that Pyrrhus would have been warned by the 
terrible fate which Alexander met with not to 
follow in his steps. But military men arc 
never deterred from dangerous undertakings 
by the disasters which others have encounter- 
ed in attempting them before. In fact, per- 
haps Pyrrhus was the more eager to try his 
fortune in this field on account of the calami- 
tous result of his uncle's campaign. He was 
unwilling that his kingdom of Epirus should 

*See map. 
110 



WAR IN ITALY. Ill 

rest under the discredit of a defeat, and he 
was fired with a special ambition to show that 
he could overcome and triumph where others 
had been overborne and destroyed. 

The dominion of the Romans had extended 
itself before this time over a considerable por- 
tion of Italy, though Tarentum, and the region 
of country dependent upon it, had not yet been 
subdued. The Romans were, however, now 
gradually making their way toward the east- 
ern and southern part of Italy, and they had 
at length advanced to the frontiers of the Ta- 
rentine territory ; and having been met and re- 
sisted there by the Tarentine troops, a col- 
lision ensued, which was followed by an open 
and general war. In the struggle, the Taren- 
tines found that they could not maintain their 
ground against the Roman soldiery. They 
were gradually driven back ; and now the city 
itself was in very imminent danger. 

The difficulties in which the Tarentines were 
placed were greatly increased by the fact that 
there was no well-organized and stable gov- 
ernment ruling in the city. The government 
was a sort of democracy in its form, and in its 
actions it seems to have been a democracy of 
a very turbulent character — the questions of 
public policy being debated and decided in as- 



112 PYRRHUS. 

semblies of the people, where it would seem 
that there was very little of parliamentary law 
to regulate the proceedings ; and now the dan- 
gers which threatened them on the approach 
of the Romans distracted their councils more 
than ever, and produced, in fact, universal dis- 
order and confusion throughout the city. 

Various parties were formed, each of which 
had its own set of measures to urge and insist 
upon. Some were for submitting to the Ro- 
mans, and thus allowing themselves to be in- 
corporated in the Roman commonwealth; 
others were for persevering in their resistance 
to the last extremity. In the midst of these 
disputes, it was suggested by some of the 
counselors that the reason why they had not 
been able to maintain their ground against 
their enemies was, that they had no command- 
er of sufficient predominence in rank and au- 
thority to concentrate their forces, and employ 
them in an efficient and advantageous manner ; 
and they proposed that, in order to supply this 
very essential deficiency, Pyrrhus should be 
invited to come and take the command of their 
forces. This plan was strongly opposed by 
the more considerate and far-sighted of the 
people; for they well knew that when a for- 
eign power was called in, in such a manner, 



WAR IN ITALY. 113 

as a temporary friend and ally, it almost al- 
ways became, in the end, a permanent master. 
The mass of the people of the city, however, 
were so excited by the imminence of the im- 
mediate peril, that it was impossible to im- 
press them with any concern for so remote and 
uncertain a danger, and it was determined 
that Pyrrhus should be called. 

It was said that the meetings which were 
held by the Tarentines while these proceed- 
ings were in progress, were so boisterous and 
disorderly that, as often happens in democrat- 
ic assemblies, the voices of those who were in 
the minority could not be heard; and that at 
last one of the public men, who was opposed 
to the plan of sending the invitation to Pyr- 
rhus, resorted to a singular device in order to 
express his opinion. The name of this per- 
sonage was Meton. The artifice which he 
adopted was this: he disguised himself as a 
strolling mountebank and musician, and then, 
pretending to be half intoxicated, he came into 
the assembly with a garland upon his head, a 
torch in his hand, and with a woman playing 
on a sort of flute to accompany him. On see- 
ing him enter the assembly, the people all 
turned their attention toward him. Some 
laughed, some clapped their hands, and others 



114 PYRRHUS. 

called out to him to give them a song. Meton 
prepared to do so ; and when, after much dif- 
ficulty, silence was at length, obtained, Meton 
came forward into the space that had been 
made for him, and, throwing off his disguise, 
he called out aloud, 

''Men of Tarentium! You do well in calling 
for a song, and in enjoying the pleasures of 
mirth and merriment while you may; for I 
warn you that you will see very little like mirth 
or merriment in Tarentum after Pyrrhus 
comes." 

The astonishment which this sudden turn 
in the affair occasioned, was succeeded for a 
moment by a murmur of assent, which seemed 
to pass through the assembly ; the good sense 
of many of the spectators being surprised, as 
it w^ere, into an admission that the sentiment 
which Meton had so surreptitiously found 
means to express to them vv^as true. This 
pause was, however, but momentary. A scene 
of violent excitement and confusion ensued, 
and Meton and the woman were expelled from 
the meeting without any ceremony. 

The resolution of sending for Pyrrhus was 
confirmed, and embassadors were soon after- 
ward dispatched to Epirus. The message 
which they communicated to Pyrrhus on their 



WAR IN ITALY. II 5 

arrival was, that the Tarentines, being engaged 
in a war with the Romans, invited Pyrrhus 
to come and take command of their armies. 
They had troops enough, they said, and all 
necessary provisions and munitions of war. 
All that they now required was an able and ef- 
ficient general; and if Pyrrhus would come 
over to them and assume the command, they 
would at once put him at the head of an army 
of twenty thousand horse and three hundred 
and fifty thousand foot soldiers. 

It seems incredible that a state should have 
attained to such a degree of prosperity and 
power as to be able to bring such a force as 
this into the field, while under the govern- 
ment of men who, when convened for the con- 
sideration of questions of public policy in a 
most momentous crisis, were capable of hav- 
ing their attention drawn off entirely from the 
business before them by the coming in of a 
party of strolling mountebanks and players. 
Yet such is the account recorded by one of the 
greatest historians of ancient times. 

Pyrrhus was, of course, very much elated at 
receiving this communication. The tidings, 
too, produced great excitement among all the 
people of Epirus. Great numbers immediately 
began to offer themselves as volunteers to ac- 



Il6 PYRRHUS. 

company the expedition. Pyrrhus determined 
at once to embark in the enterprise, and he 
commenced making preparations for it on a 
very magnificent scale ; for, notwithstanding 
the assurance which the Tarentines had given 
him that they had a very large body of men 
already assembled, Pyrrhus seems to have 
thought it best to take with him a force of his 
own. 

As soon as a part of his army was ready, he 
sent them forward under the command of a 
distinguished general and minister of state, 
named Cineas. Cineas occupied a very high 
position in Pyrrhus's court. He was a Thes- 
salian by birth. He had been educated in 
Greece, under Demosthenes, and he was a very 
accomplished scholar and orator as well as 
statesman. Pyrrhus had employed him in em- 
bassies and negotiations of various kinds from 
time to time, and Cineas had always dis- 
charged these trusts in a very able and satis- 
factory manner. In fact, Pyrrhus, with his 
customary courtesy in acknowledging his ob- 
ligations to those whom he employed, used to 
say that Cineas had gained him more cities by 
his address than he had ever conquered for 
himself by his arms. 

Cineas, it was said, was, in the outset, not 



WAR IN ITALY. H/ 

much in favor of this expedition into Italy. 
The point of view in which he regarded such 
an enterprise was shown in a remarkable con- 
versation which he held with Pyrrhus while 
the preparations were going on. He took oc- 
casion to introduce the subject one day, when 
Pyrrhus was for a short period at leisure in 
the midst of his work, by saying, 

"The Romans are famed as excellent sol- 
diers, and they have many warlike nations in 
alliance with them. But suppose we succeed 
in our enterprise and conquer them, what use 
shall we make of our victory?" 

"Your question answers itself," replied the 
king. "The Romans are the predominant 
power in Italy. If they are once subdued, 
there will be nothing in Italy that can with- 
stand us ; we can go on immediately and make 
ourselves masters of the whole country." 

After a short pause, during which he seemed 
to be reflecting on the career of victory which 
Pyrrhus was thus opening to view, Cineas 
added, 

"And after we have conquered Italy, what 
shall we do next?" 

"Why, there is Sicily very near," replied 
Pyrrhus, "a very fruitful and populous island, 
and one which we shall then very easily be 



Il8 P\RRIIUS. 

able to subdue. It is now in a very unsettled 
state, and could do nothing effectual to resist 
us." 

''I think that is very true/' said Cineas ; 
"*and after we make ourselves masters of Sic- 
ily, what shall we do then," 

'Then," replied Pyrrhus, "we can cross the 
Mediterranean to Lybia and Carthage. The 
distance is not very great, and we shall be able 
to land on the African coast at the head of such 
a force that we shall easily make ourselves 
masters of the whole country. We shall then 
have so extended and established our power, 
that no enemy can be found in any quarter 
who will think of opposing us." 

''That is very true," said Cineas ; "and so 
you will then be able to put down effectually 
all your old enemies in Thessaly, Macedon, 
and Greece, and make yourself master of all 
those countries. And when all this is accom- 
plished, what shall we do then?" 

"Why, then," said Pyrrus, "we can sit down 
and take our ease, and eat, drink, and be 
merry." 

"And why," rejoined Cineas, "can not we 
sit down and take our ease, and enjoy our> 
selves now, instead of taking all this trouble 
beforehand? You have already at your com- 



WAR IN ITALY. II^ 

mand every possible means of enjoyment ; why 
not make yourself happy with them now, 
instead of entering on a course which will 
lead to such dreadful toils and dangers, such 
innumerable calamities, and through such seas 
of blood, and yet bring you after all, at the 
end, nothing more than you have at the begin- 
ning?" 

It may, perhaps, be a matter of doubt 
whether Cineas intended this as a serious re- 
monstrance against the execution of Pyrrhus's 
designs, or only as an ingenious and good-hu- 
m.ored satire on the folly of ambition, to amuse 
the mind of his sovereign in some momentary 
interval of leisure that came in the midst of 
his cares. However it may have been intended, 
it made no serious impression on the mind of 
Pyrrhus, and produced no change in his plans. 
The work of preparation went vigorously on; 
and as soon as a portion of the troops were 
ready to embark, Cineas was put in command 
of them, and they crossed the Adriatic Sea. 
After this, Pyrrhus completed the organiza- 
tion of the remaining force. It consisted of 
twenty elephants, three thousand horse, and 
twenty thousand foot, with two thousand 
archers, and twenty thousand slingers. When 
all was ready, Pyrrhus put these troops on 



120 PYRRHUS. 

board a large fleet of galleys, transports, and 
flat-bottomed boats, which had been sent over 
to him from Tarentum by Cineas for the pur- 
pose, and at length set sail. He left Ptolemy, 
his eldest son, then about fifteen years old, re- 
gent of the kingdom, and took two younger 
sons, Alexander and Helenas, with him. The 
expedition was destined, it seems, to begin in 
disaster; for no sooner had Pyrrhus set sail 
than a terrible storm arose, which, for a time, 
threatened the total destruction of the fleet, 
and of all who were on board of it. The ship 
which conveyed Pyrrhus himself was, of 
course, larger and better manned than the 
others, and it succeeded at length, a little after 
midnight in reaching the Italian shore, while 
the rest of the fleet were driven at the mercy 
of the winds, and dispersed in every direction 
over the sea, far and wide. But, though Pyr- 
rhus's ship approached the shore, the violence 
of the winds and waves was so great, that for 
a long time it was impossible for those on 
board to land. At length the wind suddenly 
changed its direction, and began to blow very 
violently off the shore, so that there seemed 
to be great probability that the ship would be 
driven to sea again. In fact, so imminent was 
the danger, that Pyrrhus determined to throw 



WAR IN ITALY. 121 

himself into the sea and attempt to swim to 
the shore. He accordingly did so, and was 
immediately followed by his attendants and 
guards, who leaped into the water after him; 
and did every thing in their power to assist 
him in gaining the land. The danger, how- 
ever, was extreme; for the darkness of 
the night, the roaring of the winds 
and waves, and the violence with which the 
surf regurgitated from the shore, rendered the 
scene terrific beyond description. At last, 
however, about daybreak, the shipwrecked 
company succeeded in gaining the land. 

Pyrrhus was almost completely exhausted 
in body by the fatigues and exposures which 
he had endured, but he appeared to be by no 
means depressed in mind. The people of the 
country flocked down to the coast to render 
aid. Several other vessels afterward succeeded 
in reaching the shore; and as the wind novr 
rapidly subsided, the men on board of them 
found comparatively little difficulty in effect- 
ing a landing. Pyrrhus collected the rem- 
nant thus saved, and marshaled them on the 
shore. He found that he had about two thous- 
and foot, a small body of horse, and two ele- 
phants. With this force he immediately set 
out on his march to Tarentum. As he ap- 



122 PYRRHUS. 

proached the city, Cineas came out to meet 
him at the head of the forces which had been 
placed at his command, and which had made 
the passage in safety. 

As soon as Pyrrhus found himself establish- 
ed in Tarentum, he immediately assumed the 
command of every thing there, as if he were 
already the acknowledged sovereign of the 
city. In fact, he found the city in so disorgan- 
ized and defenseless a condition, that this as- 
sumption of power on his part seemed to be 
justified by the necessity of the case. The in- 
habitants, as is often the fact with men when 
their affairs are in an extreme and desperate 
condition, had become reckless. Every where 
throughout the city disorder and idleness 
reigned supreme. The men spent their time in 
strolling about from place to place, or sitting 
idly at home, or gathering in crowds at places 
of public diversion. They had abandoned all 
care or concern about public affairs, trusting 
to Pyrrhus to save them from the impending 
danger. Pyrrhus perceived, accordingly, that 
an entire revolution in the internal condition 
of the city was indispensably required, and he 
immediately took most efficient measures for 
effecting it. He shut up all the places of pub- 
lis amusement, and even the public walks and 



WAR IN ITALY. 1 23 

promenades, and put an end to all feastings, 
revels and entertainments. Every man cap- 
able of bearing arms was enrolled in the army, 
and the troops thus formed were brought out 
daily for severe and long-protracted drillings 
and reviews. The people complained loudly 
of these exactions ; but Pyrrhus had the power 
in his hands, and they were compelled to sub- 
mit. Many of the inhabitants, however, weie 
so dissatisfied with these proceedings, that 
they went away and left the city altogether. 
Of course it was those who were the most 
hopelessly idle, dissolute, and reckless that 
thus withdrew, while the more hardy and reso- 
lute remained. While these changes were go- 
ing on, Pyrrhus set up and repaired 
the defenses of the city. He secured the walls, 
and strengthened the gates, and organized a 
complete system of guards and sentries. In a 
word, the condition of Tarentum was soon en- 
tirely changed. From being an exposed and 
defenseless town, filled with devotees of idle- 
ness and pleasure, it became a fortress, well se- 
cured at all points, with material defenses, and 
occupied by a well-disciplined and resolute 
garrison. 

The inhabitants of the southeastern part of 
Italy, where Tarentum was situated, were of 

9— Pyrrhus 



124 PYRRHUS. 

Greek origin, the country having been settled, 
as it would seem, by emigrants from the op- 
posite shores of the Adriatic Sea. Their lan- 
guage, therefore, as well as their customs and 
usages of life, were different from those of the 
Roman communities that occupied the western 
parts of the peninsula. Now the Greeks at 
this period regarded themselves as the only 
truly civilized people in the world; all other 
nations they called barbarians. The people of 
Tarentum, therefore, in sending for Pyrrhus 
to come to their aid against the Romans, did 
not consider him as a foreigner brought in to 
help them in a civil war against their own 
countrymen, but rather as a fellow-country- 
man coming to aid tlTem in a war against for- 
eigners. They regarded him as belonging to 
the same race and lineage with themselves, 
while the enemies who were coming from be- 
yond the Appenines to assail them they looked 
upon as a foreign and barbarous horde, 
against whom it was for the common interest 
of all nations of Greek descent to combine. 
It was this identity of interest between Pyr- 
rhus and the people whom he came to aid, in 
respect both to their national origin and the 
cause in which they were engaged, which 
made it possible for him to assume so supreme 



WAR IN ITALY. 125 

an authority over all their affairs when he ar- 
rived at Tarentum. 

The people of the neighboring cities were 
slow in sending in to Pyrrhus the quotas of 
troops which the Tarentines had promised 
him; and before his force was collected, the 
tidings arrived that the Romans were coming 
on at the head of a great army, under the com- 
mand of the consul Laevinus. Pyrrhus imme- 
diately prepared to go forth to meet them. He 
marshaled the troops that were already assem- 
bled, and leaving the city, he advanced to meet 
the consul. After proceeding some way, he 
sent forward an embassador to the camp of 
Laevinus to propose to that general that, be- 
fore coming to extremities, an effort should be 
made to settle the dispute between the Romans 
and Tarentines in some amicable manner, and 
offering his services as an umpire and media- 
tor for this purpose. To this embassage Laev- 
inus coolly replied ''that he did not choose to 
accept Pyrrhus as a mediator, and that he did 
not fear him as an enemy." Of course, after 
receiving such a message as this, there was 
nothing left to Pyrrhus but to prepare for 
war. 

He advanced, accordingly, at the head of his 
troops, until at length, he reached a plain, 



126 PYRRHUS. 

where he encamped with all his forces. There 
was a river before him, a small stream called 
the River Siris. The Romans came up and 
encamped on the opposite side of the bank of 
this stream. Pyrrhus mounted his horse and 
rode to an eminence near the river to take a 
view of them. 

He was much surprised at what he saw. The 
order of the troops, the systematic and regu- 
lar arrangement of guards and sentinels, and 
the regularity of the whole encampment, ex- 
cited his admiration. 

"Barbarians!" said he. ''There is certainly 
nothing of the barbarian in their manner of 
arranging their encampment, and we shall 
soon see how it is with them in other re- 
spects.'' 

So saying, he turned away, and rode to his 
own camp. He, however, now began to be 
very seriously concerned in respect to the re- 
sult of the approaching contest. The enemy 
with whom he was about to engage was ob- 
viously a far more formidable one than he had 
anticipated. He resolved to remain where he 
was until the allies whom he was expecting 
from the other Grecian cities should arrive. 
He accordingly took measures for fortifying 



WAR IN ITALY. I27 

himself as strongly as possible in his position, 
and he sent down a strong detachment from 
his main body to the river, to guard the bank 
and prevent the Romans from crossing to at- 
tack him. Lsevinus, on the other hand, know- 
ing that Pyrrhus was expecting strong re- 
enforcements, determined not to wait till they 
should come, but resolved to cross the river at 
once, notwithstanding the guard which Pyr- 
rhus had placed on the bank to dispute the 
passage. 

The Romans did not attempt to cross the 
stream in one body. The troops were divided 
and the several columns advanced to the river 
and entered the water at different points up 
and down the stream, the foot-soldiers at the 
fords, where the water was most shallow, and 
the horsemen at other places — the most favor- 
able that they could find. In this manner the 
whole river was soon filled with soldiers. 
The guard which Pyrrhus had posted on the 
bank found that they were wholly unable to 
withstand such multitudes ; in fact, they be- 
gan to fear that they might be surrounded. 
They accordingly abandoned the bank of the 
river, and retreated to the main body of the 
army. 

Pyrrhus was greatly concerned at this 



128 PYRRHUS. 

event, and began to consider himself in im- 
minent danger. He drew up his foot-soldiers 
in battle array, and ordered them to stand by 
their arms, while he himself advanced, at the 
head of the horsemen, toward the river. As 
soon as he came to the bank, an extraordin- 
ary spectacle presented itself to view. The 
surface of the stream seemed covered in every 
part with shields, rising a little above the 
water, as they were held up by the arms of 
the horsemen and footmen who were coming 
over. As fast as the Romans landed, they 
formed an array on the shore, and Pyrrhus, 
advancing to them, gave them battle. 

The contest was maintained, with the ut- 
most determination and fury on both sides, 
for a long time. Pyrrhus himself was very 
conspicuous in the fight, for he wore a very 
costly and magnificent armor, and so res- 
plendent in lustre withal as to be an object of 
universal attention. Notwithstanding this, he 
exposed himself in the hottest parts of the en- 
gagement, charging upon the enemy with the 
most dauntless intrepidity whenever there 
was occasion, and moving up and down the 
lines, wherever his aid or the encouragement 
of his presence was most required. At length 



WAR IN ITALY. I29 

one of his generals, named Leonatus, rode up 
to him and said, 

'^Do you see, sire, that barbarian trooper, on 
the black horse with the white feet? I counsel 
you to beware of him. He seems to be medi- 
tating some deep design against you; he sin- 
gles you out, and keeps his eye constantly up- 
on you, and follows you wherever you go. 
He is watching an opportunity to execute 
some terrible design, and you will do well to 
be on your guard against him.'' 

''Leonatus,'' said Pyrrhus, in reply, "we 
can not contend against our destiny, I know 
very well; but it is my opinion that neither 
that man, nor any other man in the Roman 
army that seeks an encounter with me, will 
have any reason to congratulate himself on 
the result of it." 

He had scarcely spoken these words when 
he saw the horsemen whom Leonatus had 
pointed out coming down upon him at full 
speed, with his spear grasped firmly in his 
hands, and the iron point of it aimed directly 
at Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus sprang immediately to 
meet his antagonist, bringing his own spear 
into aim at the same time. The horses met, 
and were both thrown down by the shock of 
the encounter. The friends of Pyrrhus rush- 



130 PYRRHUS. 

ed to the spot. They found both horses had 
been thrust through by the spears, and they 
both lay now upon the ground, dying. Some 
of the men drew Pyrrhus out from under his 
horse and bore him off the field, while others 
stabbed and killed the Roman where he lay. 

Pyrrhus, having escaped this t:rrible danger, 
determined now to be more upon his guard. 
He supposed, in fact, that the Roman officers 
would be made furious by the death of their 
comrade,. and would make the most desperate 
efforts to avenge him. He accordingly con- 
trived to find an opportunity, in the midst of 
the confusion of the battle, to put off the ar- 
mor which made him so conspicuous, by ex- 
changing with one of his officers, named Meg- 
acles. Having thus disguised 'himself, he re- 
turned to the battle. He brought up the foo^- 
soldiers and the elephants ; and, instead of 
employing himself, as heretofore, in perform- 
ing single feats of personal valor, he devoted 
all his powers to directing the arrangements 
of the battle, encouraging the men, and rally- 
ing them when they were for a time driven 
away from their ground. 

By the exchange of armor which Pyrrhus 
thus made he probably saved his life ; for Meg- 
acles, wherever he appeared after he had as- 



WAR IN ITALY. 



13^ 



sumed the dress of Pyrrhus, found himself al- 
ways surrounded by enemies, who pressed up- 
on him incessantly and every where in grear 
numbers, and was finally killed. When he fell, 
the men who slew him seized the glittering 



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The Trophies. 



helmet and the resplendent cloak that he wore, 
and bore them off in triumph into the Roman 
lines, as proof that Pyrrhus was slain. The tid- 
ings, as it passed along from rank to rank of 
the army, awakened a long and loud shout of 
acclam'ation and triumph, which greatly ex- 
cited and animated the Romans, while 
it awakened in the army of Pyrrhus a 
correspondent emotion of discouragement 



132 PYRRHUS. 

and fear. In fact, for a short time it was 
universally believed in both armies that 
threatened for a season to produce the most 
fatal effects, Pyrrhus rode along the ranks 
with his head uncovered, showing himself to 
his men, and shouting to them that he was 
yet alive. 

At length, after a long and very obstinate 
conflict, the Greeks gained the victory. This 
result was due in the end, in a great measure, 
to the elephants which Pyrrhus brought into 
the battle. The Roman horses, being wholly 
unused to the sight of such huge beasts, were 
terrified beyond measure at the spectacle, and 
fled in dismay whenever they saw the mon- 
sters coming. In fact, in some cases, the 
riders lost all command of their horses, and 
the troop turned and fled, bearing down and 
overwhelming the ranks of their friends be- 
hind them. In the end the Romans were 
wholly driven from the field. They did not 
even return to their camp, but, after recross- 
ing the river in confusion, they fled in all di- 
rections, abandoning the whole country to 
their conqueror. Pyrrhus then advanced 
across the river and took possession of the 
Roman camp. 




CHAPTER VI. 



NEGOTIATIONS. 



The result of the battle on the banks oi the 
Siris, decisive and complete as the vic- 
tory was on the part of the Greeks, produced, 
of course, a very profound sensation at Rome. 
Instead, however, of discouraging and dis- 
heartening the Roman senate and people, it 
only aroused them to fresh energy and deter- 
mination. The victory was considered as 
wholly due to the extraordinary military en- 
ergy and skill of Pyrrhus, and not to any su- 
periority of the Greek troops over those of the 
Romans in courage, in discipline, or in effi- 
ciency in the field. In fact, it was a saying at 
Rome at the time, that it was Lsevinus that 
had been conquered by Pyrrhus in the battle, 
and not the Romans by the Greeks. The Ro- 
man government, accordingly, began imme- 
diately to enlist new recruits, and to make 
preparations for a new campaign, more ample 
and complete, and on a far greater scale than 
before. 

Pyrrhus was much surprised when he heard 



T34 PYRRHUS. 

these things. He had supposed that the Ro- 
mans would have been disheartened by the 
defeat which they had sustained, and would 
now think only of proposals and negotiations 
for peace. He seems to have been but very im- 
perfectly informed in respect to the condition 
of the Roman corrumonwealth at this period, 
and to the degree of power to which it had at- 
tained. He supposed that, after suffering so 
signal and decisive a defeat, the Romans 
would regard themselves as conquered, and 
that nothing remained to them now but to 
consider how they could make the best terms 
with their conqueroir. The Roman troops 
had, indeed, withdrawn from the neighbor- 
hood of the place where the battle had Been 
fought, and had left Pyrrhus to take posses- 
sion of the ground without' molestation. Pyr- 
rhus was even allowed to advance some con- 
siderable distance toward Rome; but he soon 
learned that, notwithstanding their temporary 
reverses, his enemies had not the most remote 
intention of submitting to him, but were mak- 
ing preparations to take the field again 
with a greater force than ever. 

Under these circumstances, Pyrrhus was 
for a time somewhat at a loss what to do. 
Should he follow up his victory, and advance 



NEGOTIATIONS. 1 35 

boldly toward the capital, with a view of over- 
coming the Roman power entirely, or should 
he be satisfied with the advantage which he 
had already gained, and be content, for the 
present, with being master of Western 
Italy? After much hesitation, he concluded 
on the latter course. He accordingly sus- 
pended his hostile operations, and prepared 
to send an embassador to Rome to propose 
peace. Cineas was, of course, the embassador 
commissioned to act on this occasion. 

Cineas accordingly proceeded to Rome. He 
was accompanied by a train of attendants 
suitable to his rank as a royal embassador, 
and he took with him a great number of cost- 
ly presents to be offered to the leading men in 
Rome, by way, as it would seem, of facilitat- 
ing his negotiations. The nature of the means 
which he thus appears to have relied upon in 
his embassy to Rome may, perhaps, indicate 
the secret of his success in the diplomatic 
duties which he had performed in Greece and 
in Asia, where he had acquired so much dis- 
tinction for his dexterity in negotiating treat- 
ies favorable to the interests of his master> 
However this may be, Cineas found that the 
policy which he contemplated would not an- 
swer in Rome. Soon after his arrival in the 



136 PYRRHUS. 

city, and in an early stage of the negotiations, 
he began to offer his presents to the pubHc 
men with whom he had to deal; but they re- 
fused to accept them. The Roman senators 
to whom the gifts were offered returned them 
all, saying that, in case a treaty should be con- 
cluded, and peace made between the two na- 
tions, they should then have no objections to 
an interchange of such civilities; but, while 
the negatiations were pending, they conceived 
it improper for them to receive any such of- 
ferings. It may, perhaps, be taken as an ad- 
ditional proof of the nature of the influences 
which Cineas was accustomed to rely upon in 
his diplomatic undertakings, that he offered 
many of his gifts on this occasion to the ladies 
of the Roman senators as well as to the sena- 
tors themselves; but the wives were found as 
incorruptible as the husbands. The gifts 
were all alike returned. 

Not discouraged by the failure of this at- 
tempt, Cineas obtained permission of the Ro- 
man senate to appear before them, and to ad- 
dress them on the subject of the views which 
Pyrrhus entertained in respect to the basis of 
the peace which he proposed. On the appoint- 
ed day Cineas went to the senate-chamber, 
and there made a long and very able and elo- 



NEGOTIATIONS. 1 3/ 

quent address, in the presence of the senate 
and of the principal inhabitants of the city. 
He was very much impressed on this occasion 
with the spectacle which the august assembly 
presented to his view. He said afterward, in 
fact, that the Roman senate seemed to him 
like a congress of kings, so dignii&ed and im- 
posing was the appearance of the body, and so 
impressive was the air of calmness and gravity 
which reigned in their deliberations. Cineas 
made a very able and eiffective speech. He 
explained the views and proposals of Pyrrhus, 
presenting them in a light as favorable and at- 
tractive as possible. Pyrrhus was willing, he 
said, to make peace on equal terms. He pro- 
posed that he should give up all his prisoners 
without ransom, and that the Romans should 
give up theirs. He would then form an alli- 
ance with the Romans, and aid them in the 
future conquests that they meditated. All he 
asked was that he might have the sanction of 
the Roman government to his retaining Tar- 
entum and the countries connected with and 
dependent upon it; and that, in maintaining 
his dominion over these lands, he might look 
upon the Roman people as his allies and 
friends. 

After Cineas had concluded his speech and 

10— Pyrrhus 



138 PYRRHUS. 

had withdrawn from the senate-chamber, a 
debate arose among the senators on the prop- 
ositions which he had made to them. There 
was a difference of opinion; some were for 
rejecting the proposals at once; others 
thought that they ought to be accepted. Those 
who were inclined to peace urged the wisdom 
of acceding to Pyrrhus's proposals by repre- 
senting the great danger of continuing the 
war. " We have already," said they, *'lost one 
great and decisive battle; and, in case of the 
renewal of the struggle, we must expect to 
find our enemy still more formidable than he 
was before; for many of the Italian nations 
of the eastern coast have joined his standard 
since hearing of the victory wh[ch he has ob- 
tained, and more are coming in. His strength, 
in fact, is growing greater and greater every 
day ; and it is better for us to make peace with 
him now, on the honorable terms which he 
proposes to us, rather than to risk another 
battle, which may lead to the most disastrous 
consequences." 

In the midst of this discussion, an aged 
senator, who had been for a long time inca- 
pacitated by his years and infirmities from 
appearing in his seat, was seen coming to the 
assembly, supported and led by his sons and 



NEGOTIATIONS. 1 39 

sons-in-law, who were making way for him in 
the passages and conducting him in. His 
name was Appius Claudius. He was blind 
and almost helpless through age and infirm- 
nity. He had heard in his chamber of the ir- 
resolution of the senate in respect to the fur- 
ther prosecution of the war with Pyrrhus, and 
had caused himself to be taken from his bed 
and borne through the streets by servants on 
a chair to the senate-house, that he might 
there once more raise his voice to save, if pos- 
sible, the honor and dignity of his country. 
As he entered the chamber, he became at once 
the object of universal attention. As soon as 
he reached his seat, a respectful silence began 
to prevail throughout the assembly, all listen- 
ing to hear what he had to say. He expressed 
himself as follows: 

''Senators of Rome, — I am blind, and I 
have been accustomed to consider my blind- 
ness as a calamity ; but now I could wish that 
I had been deaf as well as blind, and then I 
might never have heard of the disgrace which 
seems to impend over my country. Where 
are now the boastings that we made when 
Alexander the Great commenced his career, 
that if he had turned his arms toward Italy 
and Rome, instead of Persia and the East, wo 



140 PYRRHUS. 

would never have submitted to him ; that he 
never would have gained the renown of being 
invincible if he had only attacked us, but 
would, on the other hand, if he invaded our 
dominions, only have contributed to the glory 
of the Roman name by his flight or his fall? 
These boasts we made so loudly that the echo 
of them spread throughout the world. And 
yet now, here is an obscure adventurer who 
has landed on our shores as an enemy and an 
invader, and because he has met with a par- 
tial and temporary success, you are debating 
whether you shall not make an ignominious 
peace with him, and allow him to remain. 
How vain and foolish does all our boastful de- 
fiance of Alexander appear when we now 
tremble at the name of Pyrrhus — a man who 
has been all his life a follower and dependent 
of one of Alexander's inferiior generals — a 
man who has scarcely been able to maintain 
himself in his own dominions — who could not 
retain even a small and insignificant part of 
Macedon which he had conquered, but was 
driven ignominiously from it ; and who comes 
into Italy now rather as a refugee than a con- 
queror — an adventurer who seeks power here 
because he can not sustain himself at home! 
I warn you not to expect that you can gain 



NEGOTIATIONS. I4I 

any thing by making such a peace with him as 
he proposes. Such a peace makes no atone- 
ment for the past, and it offers no security for 
the future. On the contrary, it will open the 
door to other invaders, who will come, en- 
couraged by Pyrrhus's success, and embold- 
ened by the contempt which they will feel for 
you in allowing yourselves to be thus braved 
and insulted with impunity/' 

The effect of this speech on the senate was 
to produce a unanimous determination to 
carry on the war. Cineas was accordingly 
dismissed with this answer: that the Romans 
would listen to no propositions for peace 
while Pyrrhus remained in Italy. If he 
would withdraw from the country altogether, 
and retire to his own proper dominions, they 
would then listen to any proposals that he 
might make for a treaty of alliance and amity. 
So long, however, as he remained on Italian 
ground, they would make no terms with him 
whatever, though he should gain a thousand 
victories, but would wage war upon him to 
the last extremity. 

Cineas returned to the camp of Pyrrhus, 
bearing this reply. He communicated also to 
Pyrrhus a great deal of information in respect 
to the government and the people of Rome, 



142 PYRRHUS. 

the extent of the population, and the wealth 
and resources of the city; for while he had 
been engaged in conducting his negotiations, 
he had made every exertion to obtain intelli- 
gence on all these points, and he had been a 
very attentive and sagacious observer of all 
that he had seen. The account which he gave 
was very little calculated to encourage Pyr • 
Thus in his future hopes and expectations. 
The people of Rome, Cineas said, were far 
more numerous than he had before supposed. 
They had now already on foot an army twice 
as large as the one which Pyrrhus had defeat- 
ed, and multitudes besides were still left in 
the city, of a suitable age for enlisting, suffi- 
cient to form even larger armies still. The 
prospect, in a word, was very far from such 
as to promise Pyrrhus an easy victory. 

Of course, both parties began now to pre- 
pare vigorously for war. Before hostilities 
were resuna^d, however, the Romans sent a 
messenger to the camp of Pyrrhus to negoti- 
ate an exchange of prisoners. The name of 
this embassador was Fabricius. Fabricius, as 
Pyrrhus was informed by Cineas, was very 
highly esteemed at Rome for his integrity 
and for his military abilities, but he was with- 
out property, being dependent wholly on his 



NEGOTIATIONS. I43 

pay as an officer of the army. Pyrrhus re- 
ceived Fabricius in the most respectful man- 
ner, and treated him with every mark of con- 
sideration and honor. He, moreover, offered 
him privately a large sum of money in gold. 
He told Fabricius that, in asking his accept- 
ance of such a gift, he did not do it for any 
base purpose, but intended it only as a token 
of friendship and hospitality. Fabricius, how- 
ever, refused to accept the present, and Pyr- 
rhus pressed him no further. 

The next day Pyrrhus formed a plan for 
giving his guest a little surprise. He sup- 
posed that he had never seen an elephant, and 
he accordingly directed that one of the larg- 
est of these animals should be placed secretly 
behind a curtain, in an apartment where Fab- 
ricius was to be received. The elephant was 
covered with his armor, and splendidly capar 
isoned. After Fabricius had come in, and 
while he was sitting in the apartment wholly 
unconscious of what was before him, all at 
once the curtain was raised, and the elephant 
was suddenly brought to view; and, at the 
same instant, the huge animal, raising his 
trunk, flourished it in a threatening manner 
over Fabricius's head, making at the same 
time a frightful cry, such as he had been train- 



144 



PYRRHUS. 



ed to utter for the purpose of striking terror 
into the enemy, in charging upon them on 
the field of battle. Fabricius, instead of ap- 
pearing terrified, or even astonished at the 




THE JULEPHANT CONCEALED. 



spectacle, sat quietly in his seat, to all appear- 
ance entirely unmoved, and, turning to Pyr- 
rhus with an air of the utmost composure, 
said coolly, ''You see that you make no im- 
pression upon me, either by your gold yester- 
day or by your beast to-day." 

Pyrrhus was not at all displeased with this 
answer, blunt as it may seem. On the contra- 
ry, he seems to have been very deeply impress- 



NEGOTIATIONS. 145 

ed with a sense of the stern and incorruptible 
virtue of Fabricius's character, and he felt a 
strong desire to obtain the services of such an 
officer in his own court and army. He accord- 
ingly made new proposals to Fabricius, urg- 
ing him to use his influence to induce the 
Romans to make peace, and then to go with 
him to Epirus, and enter into his service 
there. 

"If you will do so," said Pyrrhus, "I will 
make you the chief of my generals, and my 
own most intimate friend and companion, and 
you shall enjoy abundant honors and re- 
wards." 

''No," replied Fabricius, "I can not accept 
those offers, nor is it for your interest that I 
should accept them ; for, were I to go with you 
to Epirus, your people, as soon as they came 
to know me well, would lose all their respect 
for you, and would wish to have me, instead 
of you, for their king." 

We are, perhaps, to understand this re- 
joinder, as well as the one which Fabricius 
made to Pyrrhus in respect to the elephant, 
as intended in a somewhat jocose and play- 
ful sense; since, if we suppose them to hav2 
been gravely and seriously uttered, they would 
indicate a spirit of vanity and of empty boast- 



146 PYRRHUS. 

ing which would seem to be wholly in- 
consistent with what we know of Fab- 
ricius's character. However this may 
be, Pyrrhus was pleased with both ; and 
the more that he saw and learned of the Ro- 
mans, the more desirous he became of ter- 
minating the war and forming an alliance 
with them. But the Romans firmly persisted 
in refusing to treat with him, except on the 
condition ^f his withdrawing first entirely 
from Italy, and this was a condition 
with which he deemed it impossible 
to comply. It would be equivalent, in 
fact, to an acknowledgement that he had been 
entirely defeated. Accordingly, both sides 
began again to prepare vigorously for war. 

The Romans marched southward from the 
city with a large army, under the command of 
their two consuls. The names of the consuls 
at this time were Sulpicius Saverrio and De- 
cius Mus. These generals advanced into 
Apulia, a country on the western coast of 
Italy, north of Tarentum. Here they encamp 
ed on a plain at the foot of the Apennines, 
near a place called Asculum. There was a 
stream in front of their camp, and the moun- 
tains were behind it. The stream was large 
and deep, and of course it greatly protected 



NEGOTIATIONS. I47 

their position. On hearing of the approach 
of the Romans, Pyrrhus himself took the field 
at the head of all his forces, and advanced to 
meet them. He came to the plain on which 
the Roman army was encamped, and posted 
himself on the opposite bank of the stream. 
The armies were thus placed in close vicinity 
to each other, being separated only by the 
stream. The question was, which should at- 
tempt to cross the stream and make the at- 
tack upon the other. They remained in this 
position for a considerable time, neither party 
venturing to attempt the passage. 

While things were in this condition — the 
troops on each side waiting for an opportu- 
nity of attacking their enemies, and probably 
without any ifear whatever of the physical 
dangers which they were to encounter in the 
conflict — the feeling of composure and confi- 
dence among the men in Pyrrhus's army was 
greatly disturbed by a singular superstition. 
It was rumored in the army that Decius Mus, 
the Roman commander, was endowed with a 
species of magical and supernatural power, 
which would, under certain circumstances, 
be fatal to all who opposed him. And thougli 
the Greeks seem to have had no fear of the 
material steel of the Roman legions, this mys- 



148 PYRRHUS. 

terious and divine virtue, which they imagin- 
ed to reside in the commander, struck them 
with an invincible terror. 

The story was, that the supernatural power 
in question originated in one of the ancestors 
of the present Decius, a brave Roman gen- 
eral, who lived and flourished in the century 
preceding the time of Pyrrhus. His name, 
too, was Decius Mus. In the early part of his 
life, when he was a subordinate officer, he was 
the means of saving the whole army from 
most imminent danger, by taking possession 
of an eminence among the mountains, with 
the companies that were under his command, 
and holding it against the enemy until the 
Roman troops could be drawn out of a dan- 
gerous defile where they would otherwise 
have been overwhelmed and destroyed. He 
was greatly honored for this exploit. The 
consul who commanded on the occasion re- 
warded him with a golden crown, a hundred 
oxen, and a magnificent white bull, with 
gilded horns. The common soldiers, too, held 
a grand festival and celebration in honor of 
him, in which they crowned him with a 
wreath made of dried grasses on the field, ac- 
cording to an ancient custom v/hich prevailed 
among the Romans of rewarding in this way 



NEGOTIATIONS. 149 

any man who should be the means of saving 
an army. Of course, such an event as saving 
an army was of very rare occurrence; and, 
accordingly, the crowning of a soldier by his 
comrades on the field was a very distinguish- 
ed honor, although the decoration itself was 
made of materials so insignificant and worth- 
less. 

Decius rose rapidly after this time from 
rank to rank, until at length he was chosen 
consul. In the course of his consulship, he 
took the field with pne of his colleagues, 
whose name was Torquatus, at the head of a 
large army, in the prosecution of a very im- 
portant war in the interior of the country. 
The time arrived at length for a decisive bat- 
tle to be fought. Both armies were drawn up 
on the field, the preparations were all made, 
and the battle was to be fought on the follow- 
ing day. In the night, however, a vision ap- 
peared to each consul, informing him that it 
had been decreed by fate that a general on one 
side and the army on the other were to be 
destroyed on' the following day; and that, 
consequently, either of the consuls, by sacri- 
ficing himself, might secure the destruction 
of the enemy. On the other hand, if they 
were to take measures to save themselves, the 



150 pyrrhus. 

general on the other side would be killed, and 
on their side the army would be defeated and 
cut to pieces. 

The two consuls, on conferring together 
upon the following morning, immediately de- 
cided that either one or the other of them 
should die, in order to secure victory to the 
arms of their country; and the question at 
once arose, what method they should adopt 
to determine which of them should be the 
sacrifice. At last it was agreed that they 
would go into battle as usual, each in com- 
mand of his own wing of the army, and that 
the one whose wing should first begin to give 
way should offer himself as the victim. The 
arrangements were made accordingly, and 
the result proved that Decius was the one on 
whom the dire duty of self-immolation was to 
devolve. The wing under his command be- 
gan to give way. He immediately resolved to 
fulfill his vow. He summoned the high priest. 
He clothed himself in the garb of a victim 
about to be offered in sacrifice. Then, with 
his military cloak wrapped about his head, 
and standing upon a spear that had been pre- 
viously laid down upon the ground, he re- 
peated in the proper form words by which he 
devoted himself and the army of the enemy to 



NEGOTIATIONS. I5I 

the God of Death, and then finally mounted 
upon his horse and drove furiously in among 
the thickest of the enemy. Of course he was 
at once thrust through with a hundred spears 
and javelins; and immediately afterward the 
army of the enemy gave way on all hands, and 
the Romans swept the field, completely vic- 
torius. 

The power which was in this instance su- 
pernaturally granted to Decius to secure 
the victory to the Roman arms, by sacri- 
ficing his own life on the field of battle, 
afterward descended, it was supposed, as an 
inheritance, from father to son. Decius Mus, 
the commander opposed to Pyrrhus, was the 
grandson of his namesake referred to above; 
and now it was rumored among the Greeks 
that he intended, as soon as the armies came 
into action, to make the destruction of his 
enemies sure by sacrificing himself, as his 
grandfather had done. The soldiers of Pyr- 
rhus were willing to meet any of the ordinary 
and natural chances and hazards of war ; but, 
where the awful and irresistible decrees of the 
spiritual world were to be against them, it is 
not strange that they dreaded the encounter. 

Under these circumstances, Pyrrhus sent a 
party of messengers to the Roman camp to 



152 PYRRHUS. 

say to Decius, that if in the approaching battle 
he attempted to resort to any such arts of nec- 
romancy to secure the victory to the Roman 
side, he would find himself wholly unsuccess- 
ful in the attempt ; for the Greek soldiers had 
all been instructed not to kill him if he should 
throw himself among them, but to take him 
alive and bring him a prisoner to Pyrrhus's 
camp ; and that then, after the battle was over, 
he should be subjected, they declared, to the 
most cruel and ignominious punishments, as 
a magician and an impostor. Decius sent 
back word, in reply, that Pyrrhus had no oc- 
casion to give himself any uneasiness in re- 
spect to the course which the Roman general 
would pursue in the approaching battle. The 
measure that he had referred to was one to 
which the Romans were not accustomed to 
resort except in emergencies of the most ex- 
treme and dangerous character, and Pyrrhus 
ought not to flatter himself with the idea that 
the Romans regarded his invasion as of suffi- 
cient consequence to require them to have re- 
course to any unusual means of defense. 
They were fully convinced of their ability to 
meet and conquer him by ordinary modes of 
warfare. To prove that they were honest in 
this opinion, they offered to waive the ad- 



NEGOTIATIONS. 153 

vantage which the river afforded them as a 
means of defense, and allow Pyrrhus to cross 
it without molestation, with a view to fighting 
the battle afterward upon the open field; or 
they would themselves cross the river, and 
fight the battle on Pyrrhus's side of it — 
whichever Pyrrhus himself preferred. They 
asked for no advantage, but were willing to 
meet their adversaries on equal terms, and 
abide by the result. 

Pyrrhus could not with honor decline to ac 
cept this challenge. He decided to remain 
where he was, and allow the Romans to cross 
the stream. This they accordingly did; and 
when all the troops had effected the passage, 
they were drawn up in battle array on the 
plain. Pyrrhus marshaled his forces also, and 
both parties prepared for the contest. 

The Romans stood most in awe of the elc 
phants, and they resorted to some peculiar 
and extraordinary means of resisting them. 
They prepared a great number of chariots, 
each of which was armed witl:i a long pointed 
spear, projecting forward in such a manner 
that when the chariots should be driven on 
toward the elephants, these spears or beaks 
should pierce the bodies of the beasts and de- 
stroy them. The chariots, too, were filled 

11 — Pyrrhus 



154 PYRRHUS. 

with men, who were all provided with fire- 
brands, which they were to throw at the ele- 
phants, and frighten them, as they came on. 
These chariots were all carefully posted in 
front of that part of Pyrrhus's army where 
the elephants were stationed, and the char- 
ioteers were strictly ordered not to move un- 
til they should see the elephants advancing. 

The battle, as might have been expected 
from the cir,cumstances which preceded it, 
and from the^ character of the combatants, 
was fouglit with the most furious and per- 
severing desperation. It continued through 
the whole day; and in the various parts of 
the field, and during the different hours of the 
day, the advantage was sometimes strongly 
on one side, and sometimes on the other, so 
that it was wholly uncertain, for a long time, 
what the ultimate result would be. The ele- 
phants succeeded in getting round the char- 
iots which had been posted to intercept them, 
and effected a great destruction of the Roman 
troops. On the other hand, a detachment of 
the Roman army made their way to the camp 
of Pyrrhus, and attacked it desperately. 
Pyrrhus withdrew a part of his forces to pro- 
tect his camp, and that turned the tide against 
him on the field. By means of the most Her- 



NEGOTIATIONS. 1 55 

culean exertions, Pyrrhus rallied his men, and 
restored their confidence; and then, for a 
time, the fortune of war seemed to incline in 
his favor. In the course of the day Decius 
was killed, and the whole command of the 
Roman army then devolved upon Sulpicius, 
his colleague. Pyrrhus himself was seriously 
wounded. When, at last, the sun went down, 
and the approaching darkness of the night 
prevented a continuance of the combat, both 
parties drew off such as remained alive of 
their respective armies, leaving the field cov- 
ered with the dead and dying. One of Pyr- 
rhus's generals congratulated him on his vic- 
tory. *'Yes," said Pyrrhus; "another such 
victory, and I shall be undone." 

In fact, after trying their strength against 
each other in this battle, neither party seemed 
to be in haste to bring on another contes:. 
They both drew away to places of security, 
and began to send for re-enforcements, and 
to take measures to strengthen themselves for 
future operations. They remained in this 
state of inaction until at length the season 
passed away, and they then went into winter- 
quarters, each watching the other, but post- 
poning, by common consent, all active hos- 
tilities until spring. In the spring they took 



156 PYRRHUS. 

the field again, and the two armies approach- 
ed each other once more. The Roman army 
had now two new commanders, one of whom 
was the celebrated Fabricius, whom Pyrrhus 
had negotiated with on former occasions. The 
two commanders were thus well acquainted 
with each oither ; and though, as public men, 
they were enemies, in private and personally 
they were very good friends. 

Pyrrhus had a physician in his service nam- 
ed Nicias. This man conceived the design of 
offering to the Romans to poison his master 
on condition of receiving a suitable reward. 
He accordingly wrote a letter to Fabricius 
making the proposal. Fabricius immediately 
communicated the letter to his colleague, and 
they both concurred in the decision to inform 
Pyrrhus himself of the ofTer which had been 
made them, and put him on his guard against 
the domestic traitor. They accordingly sent 
him the letter which they had received, ac- 
companied by one from themselves, of the 
following tenor: 

"Caius Fabricius and Quintus ^milius to 
King Pyrrhus, greeting: 

''You seem to be as unfortunate in the 
choice of your friends as you are in that of 



NEGOTIATIONS. I $7 

your enemies. The letter which we send 
herewith will satisfy you that those around 
you, on whom you rely, are wholly unworthy 
of your confidence. You are betrayed; your 
very physician, the man who ought to be most 
faithful to you, offers to poison you. We give 
you this information, not out of any particu- 
lar friendship for you, but because we do not 
wish to be suspected of conniving at an as- 
sassination—a crime which we detest and ab- 
hor. Besides, we do not wish to be deprived 
of the opportunity of showing the world that 
we are able to meet and conquer you in open 
war." 

Pyrrhus was very much struck with what 
he considered the extraordinary generosity of 
his enemies. He immediately collected to- 
gether all the prisoners that he had taken 
from the Romans, and sent them home to the 
Roman camp, as a token of acknowledgement 
and gratitude on his part for the high and 
honorable course of action which his adver- 
saries had adopted. They, however, Roman- 
like, would not accept such a token without 
making a corresponding return, and they ac- 
cordingly sent home to Pyrrhus a body of 
Greek prisoners equal in number and rank to 
those whom Pyrrhus had set free. 



158 



PYRRHUS. 



All these things tended to increase the dis- 
inclination of Pyrrhus to press the further 
prosecution of the war. He became more and 
more desirous every day to make peace with 
the Romans, preferring very much that such 
a people should be his allies rather than his 
enemies. They, however, firmly and pertina- 
ciously refused to treat with him on any 
terms, unless, as a preliminary step, he would 
go back to his own dominions. This he 
thought he could not do with honor. He was 
accordingly much perplexed, and began earn- 
estly to wish that something would occur to 
furnish him with a plausible pretext for re- 
tiring from Italy. 




Roman Arms. 




CHAPTER VII. 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. 



The fact has already been men'tioned that 
one of tlhe wives whom Pyrrhus had married 
after the death of Antigone, the Egyptian prin- 
cess, was Lanassa, the daughter of Agathocles, 
the King of Sicily. Agathocles was a tyrranical 
monster of the worst description. His army 
was little better than an organized band o*f rob- 
bers, at the head of which he went forth on 
marauding and plundering expeditions among 
all the nations that were within his reach. He 
made these predatory excursions sometimes 
into Italy, sometimes into the Carthaginian 
territories on the African coast, and sometimes 
among the Islands of the Mediterranean Sea. 
In these campaigns he met with a great variety 
of adventures, and experienced every possible 
fate that the fortune of war could bring. 
Sometimes he was triumphant over all who 
opposed him, and became intoxicated with 
prosperity and success. At other times, through 

his insane and reckless folly, he would involve 

159 



l60 PYRRHUS. 

himself in the most desperate difficulties, and 
was frequently compelled to give up every 
thing, and to fly alone in absolute destitution 
fro^m the field of his attempted exploits to save 
his life. 

On one such occasion, he abandoned an 
army in Africa, which he had taken there on 
one of his predatory enterprises, and, flying 
secretly from the camp, he made his escape 
with a small number of attendants, leaving the 
army to its fa_te. His flight was so sudden 
on this occasion that he left his two sons be- 
hind him in the hands and at the mercy of the 
soldiers. The soldiers, as soon as they found 
that Agathocles had gone and left them, were 
so enraged against him that they put his sons 
to death on the spot, and then surrendered in 
a body to the enemy. Agathocles, when the 
tidings of this transaction came to him in 
Sicily, was enraged against the soldiers in his 
turn, and, in order to revenge himself upon 
them, he immediately sought out from among 
the population of the country their wives and 
dhildren, their brothers and sisters, and all 
who were in any way relate'd to them. These 
innocent representatives of the absent offenders 
he ordered to be seized and slain, and their 
bodies to be cast into the sea toward Africa 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. l6l 

as an expression of revengeful triumph and 
defiance. So great was the slaughter on this 
occasion, that the waters of the sea were dyed 
with blood to a great distance from <the shore. 
Of course, such cruelty as this could not be 
practiced without awakening, on the part of 
those who suffered from it, a spirit of hatred 
and revenge. Plots and conspiracies without 
numiber were formed against the tyrant's Hfe, 
and in his later years he lived in continual ap- 
pre'hension and distress. His fate, however, 
was still more striking as an illustration of 
the manner in which the old age of ambitious 
and unprincipled men is often embittered by 
the ingratitude and wickedness of their child- 
ren. Agathocles had a grandson named Ar- 
chagathus, who, if all the accounts are true, 
brought the old king's gray hairs in sorrow to 
the grave. The story is too shocking to be 
fully believed, but it is said that this grandson 
first murdered Agathocles's son and heir, his 
own uncle, in order that he mig'ht ihimsdf suc- 
ceed to the throne — ^^his own father, who would 
have been the next 'heir, being dead. Then, 
not being willing to wait until the old king 
himself should die, he began <to form plots 
against his life, and against the lives of the 
remaining members of the family. Althoug'h 



l62 PYRRHUS. 

several of Agathocles's sons were dead, having 
been destroyed by violence, or 'having fallen in 
war, 'he had a wife, named Texina, and two 
children still remaining alive. The king was 
so anxious in respect to these dhildren, on ac- 
count of Archagathus, that he determined to 
send them with their mother to Egypt, in order 
to place them beyond the reach of their mer- 
ciless nephew. Texina was very unwilling to 
consent to such a measure,. For herself and 
her sons the proposed retiring into Egypt was 
little better than going into exile, and she was, 
moreover, extremely reluctant to leave her hus- 
band alone in Syracuse, exposed to 'the machi- 
nations and plots which his unnatural grand- 
son might form against him. She, however, 
finally submitted to the hard necessity and went 
away, bidding her husband farewell with many 
tears. Very soon after her departure her 
husband died. 

The story that is told of the manner of his 
death is this: There was in his court a man 
named Msenon, whom Agathocles had taken 
captive when a youth, and ever since retained 
in his court. Thoug'h originally a captive, 
taken in war, Maenon had been made a favor- 
ite with Agathocles, and had been raised to a 
high position in his service. The indulgence, 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. 163 

however, and the favoritism with which he had 
been regarded, were not such as to awaken any 
sentiments of gratitude in Maenon's min'd, or to 
establish any true and faithful friendsfhip be- 
tween him and his master; and Archagathus, 
the grandson, found m.eans of inducing 'him to 
undertake to poison the king. As all the ordi- 
nary modes of administering poison were pre- 
cluded by the vigilance and strictness with 
which the usual avenues of approach to the 
king wxre guarded, Msenon contrived to ac- 
complish his end by poisoning a quill whidh the 
king was subsequently to use as a tooth-pick. 
The poison was insinuated thus into the teeth 
and gums of the victim, where it soon took 
effect, producing dreadful ulceration and intol- 
erable pain. The infection of -the venom after 
a short time pervaded the whole system of the 
sufferer, and brought him to the brink of the 
grave ; and at last, finding that he was speech- 
less, and apparently insensible, his ruthless 
murderers, fearing, perhaps, that he might 
revive again, hurried him to the funeral pile 
before life was extinct, and the fire finished 
the work that the poison had begun. 

The declaration of Scripture, *'They that 
take the sword shall perish by the sword,'' is 
illustrated and confirmed by the history of al- 



164 PYRRHUS. 

most every ancient tyrant. We find that -they 
almost all come at last to some terrible end. 
The man who usurps a throne by violence 
seems, in a'1'1 ages and among all nations, very 
sure to be expelled from it by greater violence, 
after a brief period of power ; and he who pois- 
ons or assassinates a precedent rival whcm he 
wis'hes to supplant, is almost invariably cut off 
by the poison or the dagger of a following one, 
who wishes to supplant 'him. 

The death of Agathocles took place about 
nine years before the campaign of Pyrrhus in 
Italy, as described in the last dhapter, and dur- 
ing that period the kingdom of Sicily had been 
in a very distracted s^tate. Maenon, imtmedi- 
ately after the poisoning of the king, fled to the 
camp of Archagathus, who was at that time in 
command of an army at a distance from the 
city. Here, in a short time, he contrived to as- 
sassinate Archagathus, and to seize the su- 
preme power. It was not long, however, be- 
fore new claimants and competitors for pos- 
session of the throne appeared, and new wars 
broke out, in the course of which Maenon was 
deposed. At length, in tihe midst of the con- 
tests and commotions that prevailed two of 
the leading generals of the Sicilian army con- 
ceived the idea of bringing forward Pyrrhus's 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. 165 

son by Lanassa as the heir to the crown. This 
prince was, of course, the grandson of the old 
King Agatjhocles, and, as there was no other 
descendant of the royal Hne at hand who could 
be made the representative of the ancient mon- 
archy, it was thought, by the generals above 
referred to, that the only measure Which af- 
forded any hope of restoring peace to the 
country was to send an embassy to Pyrrhus, 
and invite him to come and place his young son 
upon the throne. The name of Lanassa's son 
was Alexander. He was a boy, perhaps at tlhis 
time about twelve years old. 

At 'the same time that Pyrfhus received the 
invitation to go to Sicily, a message cam'e to 
him from certain parties in Greece, informing 
him that, on account of some revolutions which 
had taken place there, a very favorable oppor- 
tunity was afforded him to secure for himself 
the throne of that country, and urging him to 
come and make the attempt. Pyrrhus was for 
some time quite undecided Whicih of these two 
proposals to accept. The prize offered him in 
Greece was more tempting, but the expedition 
into Sicily seemed to promise more certain suc- 
cess. While revolving the question in his mind 
which conquest he should first undertake, he 
complained of the tantalizing cruelty of for- 



l66 PYRRHUS. ' 

tune, in offering him two sudh tempting prizes 
at the same time, so as to compel him to forego 
either the one or the other. At length he de- 
cided to go first to Sicily. 

It was said that one reason wliidh influenced 
his mind very strongly in making this decision 
was the fact that Sicily was so near the coast 
of Africa ; and the Sicilians being involved in 
wars with the Carthaginians, he thought that, 
if successful intiis operations in Sicily, the way 
would be open for 'him to make an expedition 
into Africa, in whidh case he did not doubt but 
that 'he should be able soon to overturn the 
Carthaginian power, and add all tihe nortihern 
coasts of Africa to 'his dominions. His empire 
would 'thus embrace Epirus, Hhie wliole southern 
part of Italy, Sicily, and the coasts of Africa. 
He could afterward, he thoug'ht, easily add 
Greece, and then his dominions would include 
all the wealthy and populous countries sur- 
rounding the most important part of the Medi- 
terranean Sea. His government would thus 
become a naval power of the first class, and 
any further extension of his sway w'hich he 
miglit subsequendy desire could easily be ac- 
complished. 

In a word, Pyrrlhus decided first to proceed 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. 16/ 

to Sicily, and to postpone for a brief period his 
designs on Greece. 

He accordingly proceeded to withdraw his 
troops from the interior of the country in Italy, 
and concentrate them in and around Tarentum. 
He began to make naval preparations, too, on a 
very extensive scale. The port of Tarentum 
soon presented a very busy scene. The work 
of building and repairing ships — of fabricating 
sails and rigging — ^of constructing and arming 
galleys — of disciplining and training crews — 
of laying in stores of food and of implements 
of war, went on witih great activity, and en- 
gaged universal attention. The Tarentines 
themselves stood by, while all these prepara- 
tions were going on, rather as spectators of the 
scene than as active participants. Pyrrtius had 
taken the absolute command of tlheir city and 
government, and was exercising supreme 
power, as if he were the acknowledged sover- 
eign of the country. He had been invited to 
come over from his own kingdom to help the 
Tarentines, not to govern them; but he had 
seized (the sovereign power, justifying the 
seizure, as is usual with military men under 
similar circumstances, by the necessity of the 
case. ''There must be order and submission 
to authority in the city," he said, "or we can 

12— Pjrrhas 



l68 PYRRHUS. 

make no progress in subduing our enemies/' 
The Tarentines 'had thus been induced to sub- 
mit to his assumption of power, convinced, 
perhaps, partly by his reasoning, and, at all 
events, silenced by the display of force by 
which it was accompanied ; and they had con- 
soled themselves under a condition of things 
which they could not prevent, by considering 
tihat it was better to yield to -a temporary for- 
eign domination, than to be Wholly over- 
whelmed, as- there was every probability, be- 
fore Pyrrhus came to them, 'that they would be, 
by their domestic foes. 

When, however, they found 'tfhat Pyrrhus 
intended to withdraw from them, and to go 
to Sicily, without Oiaving really effected their 
deliverance from the danger wlhich tbreatened 
them, they at first remonstrated against the de- 
sign. They wished him to remain and finish 
the work wbic'h fee had begun. The Romans 
had been checked, but they (had not been sub- 
dued. Pyrrhus ought not, 'they said, to go 
away and leave them until their independence 
and freedom had been fully establislhed. They 
remonstrated with 'him against bis design, but 
their remonstrances proved w'holly unavailing. 

When at length the Tarentines found that 
Pyrrhus was determined to go to Sicily, tihey 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. 169 

then desired that he should withdraw his troops 
from their country altogether, and leave them 
to themselves. This, however, Pyrrhus refused 
to do. He had no intention of relinquishing 
the power which he had acquired in Italy, and 
he accordingly began to make preparations for 
leaving a strong garrison in Tarentum to main- 
tain his government fhere. He organized a sort 
of regency in the city, and set apart a sufficient 
force from his army to maintain it in power 
during his absence. When tJhis was done, he 
began to make preparations for transporting 
the rest of his force to Sicily by sea. 

He determined to send Cineas forward first, 
according to his usual custom, to make the pre- 
liminary arrangements in Sicily. Cineas con- 
sequently left Tarentum with a small squadron 
of ships and galleys, and, after a short voyage, 
arrived safely at Syracuse. He found the lead- 
ing powers in that city ready to welcome Pyr- 
rhus as soon as he should arrive, and miake the 
young Alexander king. Cineas completed and 
closed the arrangements for this purpose, and 
then sent messengers to various other cities on 
the northern side of the island, making known 
to them the design which had been formed of 
raising an heir of King Agathocles to the 
throne, and asking 'their co-operation in it. He 



170 PYRRHUS. 

managed these negotiations with so much pru- 
dence and skill, that nearly all t'liat part of the 
island which was in the hands of the Sicilians 
readily acceded to the plan, and the people 
were every wh^re pTepared to welcome Pyr- 
rhus and the young prince as soon as they 
should arrive. 

Sicily, as will be seen by referring to the 
map, is of a triangular form. It was only the 
southern portion which was at this time in the 
hands of the -Sicilians. There were two foreign 
and hostile powers in possession, respectively, 
of the northeastern and northwestern portions. 
In the northeastern corner of the island was 
the city of Messana — the Messina of modern 
days. In the time of Pyrrhus's expedition, 
Messana was the seat and strong'hold of a 
warlike nation, called the Mamertines, who 
had come over from Italy across the Straits of 
Messana some years before, 'and, having made 
themselves masters of that portion of the 
island, had since held their ground there, not- 
withstanding all the efforts of the Sicilians to 
expel them. The Mamertines had originally 
come into Sicily, it was said, as Pyrrhus had 
gone into Italy — by invitation. Agathocles 
sent for them to come an'd aid liim in some of 
his wars. After the object for which they had 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. I7I 

been sent for had been accomplished, Aga- 
thocles dismissed his auxiliaries, and 't'hey set 
out on their return. They proceeded throug^a 
the northeastern part of tlhe island to Messana, 
where they were to embark for Italy. Though 
they had rendered Agathocles very efficient aid 
in his campaigns, they had also occasioned him 
an infinite deal of trouble by their turbulent 
and ungovernable spirit ; and now, as they were 
withdrawing from the island, the inhabitants 
of the country throug^h which they passed on 
the way regarded them every where with ter- 
ror and dread. The people of Messana, anx- 
ious to avoid a quarrel with thiem, and dis- 
posed to facilitate their peaceable departure 
from the land by every means in their power, 
received them into the city, and hospitably en- 
tertained them there. Instead, hb^vever, of 
quietly withdrawing from the city in proper 
time, as the Messanians had expected them to 
do, they rose suddenly and unexpectedly upon 
the people, at a concerted signal, took posses- 
sion of the city, massacrdd without mercy all 
the men, seized the women and children, and 
then, each one establishing himself in the 
household that choice or chance assigned h)im, 
married the wife and adopted the children 
whose husband and father he had murdered. 



1^2 PYRRHUS. 

The result was tihe most complete and extra- 
ordinary overturning that tihe history of the 
world can afford. It was a political, a social, 
and a domestic revolution all in one. 

This event took pface many years before the 
time of Pyrrhus's expedition ; and tlhougli dur- 
ing the interval the Sicilians had made many 
efforts to dispossess the intruders and to re- 
cover possession of Messana, tihey had not 
been able to accomplish the work. The Mamier- 
tines maintained their ground in Messana, and 
from that city, as their fortress and strong- 
hold, they extended their power over a consid- 
erable portion of the surrounding country. 

This territory of the Mamertines was in the 
northeastern part of the Island. In the niorth- 
western part, on the other ihand, there was a 
large province in the hands of the Carthagini- 
ans. Their chief city was Eryx ; though there 
was another important city and port, called 
Lilybaeum, Which was situated to the south- 
ward of Eryx, on the sea-shore. Here the Car- 
thaginians were accustome'd to land their re- 
enforcements and stores ; and by mean's of the 
ready and direct comimunication which they 
could th'us keep up with Carthage itsdf, they 
were enabled to resist all the efforts which the 
Sicilians had made to dispossess them. 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. I73 

There were thus three objects to be accom- 
plished by Pyrrhus in Sicily before 'his domin- 
ion over the island could be complete — namely, 
the Sicilians themselves, in the southern and 
central parts of the island, were to be concil- 
iated and combined, and induced to give up 
their intestine quarrels, and to acknowledge the 
young Alexander as the king oi Dhe is'lamd; 
and then the Mamertines on the nortlheast part, 
and the Carthaginians in the northwest, were 
to be conquered and expelled. 

The work was done, so f:ar as relate'd to the 
Sicilians tlhemselves, mainly by Cineas. His 
dexterous negotiations healed, in a great meas- 
ure, t!he quarrels wtiidh prevailed among tihe 
people, and prepare'd the way for welcomiing 
Pyrrhus and the young prince, as sOon as they 
s-hould appear. In respect to the Oarthaginians 
and the Mamertines, nothing, of course, could 
be attempted until the fleets and armies s'hould 
arrive. 

At length the prepamtions for the sailing 
of the expedition from Tarentum were com- 
pleted. The fleet consisted of two hundred 
sail. The immense squadron, every vessel of 
whidh was crowded with armed men, left the 
harbor of Tarentum, watdhed by a hundired 
thousand spectators w<ho had assembled to wit - 



174 PYRRHUS. 

ness its departure, and slowly made its way 
along the Italian shores, while its arrival at 
Syracuse was the object of universal expecta- 
tion and interest in t^hat city. When at length 
the fleet appeared in view, entering its port 
of destination, the whole population of the city 
and of the surrounding country flocked to the 
shores to witness the spectacle. Throug*h the 
efforts which had been made by Cineas, and in 
consequence of the measures v^hidh he had 
adopted, all ranks and classes of men were 
ready to welcome Pyrr'hus as an expected de- 
liverer. In the name of the young prince, his 
son, he was to re-establisih the ancient mon 
archy, restore peace and harmony to the land, 
and expel the 'hated foreign enemies that in- 
fested the confines of it. Accoi'dlngly, when 
the fleet arrived, and Pyrnhus and his troops 
landed from it, they were received by the whole 
population with loud and tumultuous accla- 
mations. 

After the festivities and rejoicings whidh 
were instituted to celebrate Pyrrhus's arrival 
were concluded, the young A^.exander was pro- 
claimed king, and a government was instituted 
in his name — Pyrrhus himself, of course, being 
invested with a'l actual power. Pyrhus then 
took the field ; and, on mustering h*s forces, 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. I75 

he found himself at the head of thirty or forty 
thousand men. He first proceeded to attack 
the Carthaginians. He marched to the part of 
the island which they held, and gave them bat- 
tle in the most vigorous and determined man- 
ner. They retreated to their cities, and shut 
themselves up closely within the walls. Pyrr- 
hus advanced to attack them. He determined 
to carry Eryx, which was the strongest of the 
Carthaginian cities, by storm, instead of wait- 
ing for the slow operations of an ordinary 
siege. The troops were accordingly ordered 
to advance at once to the walls, and there 
mounting, by means of innumerable ladders, 
to the parapets above, they were to force their 
way in, over the defenses of the city, in spite 
of all opposition. Of course, such a service as 
this is, of all the duties ever required of the 
so'Idier, the most dangero'us possible. The 
towers and parapets above, which the assailants 
undertake to scale, are covered with armed 
men, who throng to the part of the w^all against 
which 'the attack is to be directed, and stand 
there ready with spears, javelins, rocks, and 
every other conceivable missile, to hurl upon 
the heads of the besiegers coming up the lad- 
ders. 

Pyrrhus, however, whatever may have been 



176 PYRRHUS. 

his faults in other respects, seems to have been 
very Httle inclined at any time to order his sol- 
diers to encounter any danger which he was 
not willing himself to share. He took the head 
of the column in the storming of Eryx, and 
was the first to mount the ladders. Previous, 
however, to advancing for the attack, he per- 
formed a grand religious ceremony, in which 
he implored thie assistance of the god Hercules 
in the encounter which was about to take 
place; and made a solemn vow that if Hercules 
would assist him in the conflict, so as to enable 
him to display before the Sicilians such 
strength and valor, and to perform such feats 
as should be worthy of his mame, his ancestry, 
and his past history, he would, immediately 
after the battle, institute on the spot a course 
of festivals and sacrifices O'f the most im'posing 
and magnificent character in honor of the god. 
This vow being made, the trumpet sounded and 
the storming party went forward — Pyrr'hus at 
the head of it. In mounting the ladder, he 
defended himself with his sihield from the mis- 
siles thrown down upon him from above un 
til he reached the top of the wall, and there, 
by means of his prodigious strength, and des- 
perate and reckless bravery, he soon gained 
ground for those that followed him, and es- 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. 



177 



tablished a position there both for himself and 
for them, having cut down one after another 




of 'those who attempted to oppose him, until 
he had surrounded -himself with a sort of para- 
pet, formed of the bodies of the dead. 

In the meantime, the Whole line of ladders 
extending along the wall were crowded with 
men, all forcing their way upward against the 
resistance which the besieged opposed to them 
from above; while thousands of troops, drawn 
up below as near as possible to the scene of 
conflict, were throwing a s(hower of darts, ar- 



178 PYRRHUS. 

rows, javelins, spears, and other missiles, to 
aid the storming party by driving away the be- 
sieged from the top of the wall. By these 
means those w'ho were mounting the ladders 
were so much aided in their efforts that they 
soon succeeded in gaining possession of the 
wall, and thus made them'selves masters of the 
city. 

Pyrrhus then, in fulfillment of his vow, in- 
stituted a great celebration, and devoted sev- 
eral days to games, spectacles, shows, and 
public rejoicings of all kinds, intended to ex- 
press his devout gratitude to Hercules for the 
divine assistance Which the god had vouch- 
safed to him in the assault by which the city 
had been carried. 

By the result of this battle, and of some oth- 
er military operations which we can not here 
particularly describe, the Carthaginians were 
driven from the open field and compelled to 
shut themselves up in their strongliolds, or re- 
tire to the fastnesses of the mountains, where 
they found places of refuge and defense from 
Which Pyrrhus could not at once dislodge them. 
Accordingly, leaving things at present as they 
were in tihe Carthaginian or western part of the 
island, he proceeded to attack the Mamertines 
in the eastern part. He was equally success- 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. I79 

ful here. By means of the tact and skill which 
he exercised in ihis military arrangements and 
maneuvers, an'd by the desperate bravery and 
impetuosity Whidh Ihe displayed in battle, he 
conquered wherever he came. He captured 
and destroyed many of 'the strongholds of the 
Mamertines, drove tfliem entirely out of the 
open country, and shut them up in Messana. 
Thus the island was almost Wholly restored to 
fhe possession of the Sicilians, while yet the 
foreign intruders, thoug^h checked and re- 
strained, were not, after all, really expelled. 

The Carthaginians sent m.essengers to him 
proposing terms of peace. Their intention was, 
in these proposals, to retain their province in 
Sicily, as heretofore, and to agree with Pyrfhus 
in respect to a boundary, each party being re- 
quired by the proposed treaty to confine them- 
selves within their respective limits, as thus 
ascertained. Pyrr^hus, 'however, replied that he 
could entertain no such proposals. He an- 
swered them precisely as the Romans had an- 
svv^ered him on a similar occasion, saying that 
he should insist upon their first retiring from 
Sicily altogether, as a preliminary step to any 
negotiations Whatever. The Carthaginians 
would not accede to this demand, and so the 
negotiations v^ere suspended. 



l8o PYRRHUS. 

Still Vhe Carthaginians were so securely 
posted in their stronglioMs, that Pyrrfhus sup- 
posed the work of dislodging them by force 
would be a slow, and tedious, and perhaps 
doubtful undertaking. His bold and restless 
spirit accordingly conceived the design of leav- 
ing them as tlhey were, and going on in the 
prosecution of his original design, by organ- 
izing a grand expedition for the invasion of 
Africa. In fact, he thought this would be the 
most effectual ^means of getting the Carthagini- 
ans out of Sicily; since he anticipated that, if 
he were to land in Africa, an'd threaten Car- 
thage itself, the authorities there would be com- 
pelled to recall all their forces from foreign 
lands to defend their own homes and firesides 
at the capital. He determined, therefore, to^ 
equip his fleet for a voyage across tUe Mediter- 
ranean without any delay. 

He had ships enough, but he was in want of 
mariners. In order to supply this want, he 
began to impress the Sicilians into his service. 
They were very reluctant to engage in it, part- 
ly from natural aversion to so distant and dan- 
gerous an enterprise, and partly because they 
were unwilling that Pyrrhus should leave the 
island 'himself until their foreign foes were en- 
tirely expelled. "As soon as you have goriQ,'* 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. l8l 

they said, ''the Cartihaginians and the Mamer- 
tines will come out from their hiding-places 
and retreats, and the country will be immedi- 
ately involved in all the difficulties from which 
you have been endeavoring to deliver us. All 
your labor will have been lost, and we shall 
sink, perh'aps, into a more deplorable condition 
than ever.'' 

It was evident that these representations 
were true, but Pyrrhus conld not be induced to 
pay any heed to them. He was determined on 
carrying into effect his design of a descent 
upon the coast of Africa. He accordingly 
pressed forward his preparations in a more 
arbitrary and reckless spirit tihan ever. He 
became austere, imperious, and tyrannical in 
his measures. He arrested some of the leading 
generals and ministers of state — 'men who 'had 
been his firmest friends, and throug'h w5i'ose 
agency it was that he hiad been invited into 
Sicily, but whom he now suspected of being 
unfriendly to his designs. One of these men 
he put to death. In the mean time, he pressed 
forward his preparations, compelling men to 
join his army and to embark on board his fleet, 
and resorting to other harsh and extreme 
measures, which the people might perhaps 
have submitted to from one of their own hered- 



l82 PYRRIIUS. 

itary sovereigns, but which were altogether in- 
tolerable when imposed upon them by a for- 
eign adventurer, who came to their island by 
their invitation, to accomplish a prescribed and 
definite duty. In a word, before Pyrrhus was 
ready to embark on his African campaign, a 
general rebellion broke out all over Sicily 
against his authority. Some of the people 
joined the Mamertines, some the Carthagini- 
ans. In a word, the whole country was in an 
uproar, and Pyrrhus had the mortification of 
seeing the great fabric of power which, as he 
imagined, he had been so successfully rearing, 
come tumbling suddenly on all sides to the 
ground. 

As the reader will have learned long before 
this time, it was not the nature of Pyrrhus to 
remain on the spot and grapple with difficul- 
ties hke these. If there were any new enter- 
prise to be undertaken, or any desperate battle 
to be fought on a sudden emergency, Pyrrhus 
was always ready and eager for action, and 
almost sure of success. But he had no qualities 
whatever to fit him for the exigencies of such 
a crisis as this. He had ardor and impetuosity, 
but no perseverence or decision. He could 
fight, but he could not plan. He was recklessly 
and desperately brave in encountering physical 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. 183 

danger, but, when involved in difficulties and 
embarrassments, his only resource v^as to fly. 
Accordingly, it was soon announced in Sicily 
that Pyrrhus had determined to postpone his 
plan of preceeding to Africa, and was going 
back to Tarentum, whence he came. He had 
received intelligence from Tarentum, he said, 
that required his immediate return to that city. 
This was probably true ; for he had left things 
in such a condition at Tarentum, that he was, 
doubtless, continually receiving such intelli- 
gence from that quarter. Whether he received 
any special or extraordinary summons from 
Tarentum just at this time is extremely uncer- 
tain. He, however, pretended that such a mes- 
sage had come; and under this pretence he 
sheltered himself in his intended departure, 
so as just to escape the imputation of being 
actually driven away. 

His enemies, however, did not intend to 
allow him to depart in peace. The Carthagini- 
ans, being apprised of his design, sent a fleet to 
watch the coast and intercept him ; while the 
Mamertines, crossing the Strait, marched to 
the place on the coast of Italy where they ex- 
pected he would land, intending to attack him 
as soon as he should set foot upon the shore. 
Both these plans were successful. The Car- 

13— Pyrrhus 



184 PYRRHUS. 

fhaginians attacked his fleet, and destroyed 
many of 'his ships. Pyrr<hus himself barely 
succeeded in making his escape with a small 
number of vessels, and readhing the sihore. 
Here, as soon as he gained the land, he was 
confronted by the Mamertines, w'ho had 
reached the pilace before him with ten thous- 
and men. Pyrr'hus soon collected from the 
ships fhat reached the land a force so formid- 
able that the Mamertines did not dare to attack 
him in a body, but they blocked up the passes 
through wlhidh the way to Tarentum lay, and 
endeavored in every way to intercept -and 
harass him in 'his m'arch. They killed two of 
his elephants, and cut off many separate de- 
tachments of men, and finally deranged all his 
plans, and threw his whole army into con- 
fusion. Pyrrhus at length determined to force 
his enemies to battle. Accordingly, as soon as 
a favorable opportunity occurred, he pusflhed 
forward at the head of a strong force, and at- 
tacked the Mamertines in -a sudden and most 
impetuous manner. 

A terrible conflict ensued, in which Pyrrhus, 
as usual, exposed himself personally in the 
most desperate manner. In fact, the various 
disappointments and vexations w^hioh he had 
endured had arou'sed him to >a sta'te of great 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. 185 

exasperation against his tormenting enemies. 
He pushed forward into the hottest part of the 
battle, his prodigious muscular strength enabl- 
ing him to beat down and destroy, for a time, 
all who attempted to oppose him. 

At last, however, he received a terrible 
wound in the head, which, for a moment, en- 
tirely disabled him. He w^as rescued from his 
peril by his friends, though stunned and faint- 
ing under the blow and was borne off from the 
scene of conflict with the blood flowing down 
his face and neck — a frightful spectacle. On 
being carried to a place of safety within his 
own ranks, he soon revived, and it was found 
that he was not dangerously hurt. The enemy, 
however, full of rage and hatred, came up as 
near as they dared to the spot where Pyrrhus 
had been carried, and stood there, calling out 
to him to come back if he was still alive, and 
vociferations of challenge and defiance. 
Pyrrhus endured this mockery for a few mo- 
ments as well as he could, but was finally 
goaded by it into a perfect phrensy of rage. 
He seized his weapons, pushed his friends 
and attendants aside, and, in spite of all their 
remonstrances and all their efforts to restrain 
him, he rushed forth and assailed his enemies 
with greater fury than ever. Breathless as he 



l86 PYRRHUS. 

was from his former efforts, and covered with 
blood and gore, he exhibited a sihocking spec- 
tacle to all who beheld 'him. The champion of 
the Mamertines — the one Who had been fore- 
most in challenging Pyrrhus to return — came 
up to meet him wit^h his weapon upraised. 
Pyrrhus parried the blow, and then, suddenly 
bringing down his own sword upon the top of 
his antagonist's head, he cut the man down, 
as the story is told, from head to foot, making 
so complete a division, that one half of the 
body fell over to one side, and the other half 
to the other. 

It is difficult, perhaps, to assign limits to the 
degree of physical strength Which the human 
arm is capable of exerting. This fact, how- 
ever, of cleaving the body of a man by a blow 
from a sword, was regarded in ancient times 
as just on the line of absolute impossibility, 
and was considered, consequently, as the hig'h- 
est personal exploit which a soldier could per- 
form. It was attributed, at different times, to 
several different warriors, thoug^h it is not 
believed in modern days that the feat was ever 
really performed. 

But, whatever may have been the fate of the 
Mamertine champion under Pyrrhus's sword, 
the army itself met with such a discomfiture 



THE SICILIAN CAMPAIGN. 



187 



in the battle that fhey gave Pyrrhus no further 
trouble, but, retiring from tlhe field, left him to 
pursue his march to Tarentum for the remain- 
der of the way in peace. He arrived there a^ 
last, v^i'th a force in numbers about equal to 




Pyrrhus. 
that with Whidh he had left Tarentum for 
Sicily. The whole object, however, of 'his 
expedition had totally failed. The enterprise, 
in fact, like almost all tlie undertakings wbich 
Pyrrhus engaged in, though brilliantly and tri- 
umphantly successful in the beginning, came 
only to disappointment and disaster in the end. 




CHAPTER VIII. 

THE RETREAT FROM ITALY. 

The force with which Pyrrhus returned to 
Tarentum was very nearly as large as Aat 
which 'he had taken away, but was composed 
of very different materials. The Greeks from 
Epirus, wliom he had brouglit over witlh him 
in the first ins'tance from his niative land, had 
gradually disappeared from t)he ranks of his 
army. Many of them <had been killed in battle, 
and still greater numbers 'had been carried off 
by exposure and fatigue, and by the thousand 
other casualties inciden't to such a service as 
that in which they were engaged. Their places 
had been supplied, from time to time, by new 
enlistments, or by impressment an'd conscrip- 
tion. Of course, these new recruits were not 
bound to their comimander by any ties of at- 
tachment or regard. They were mostly mer- 
cenaries — fhat is, men hired to fight, and will- 
ing to fight, in any cause or for any command- 
er, provided they could be paid. In a word, 
Pyrrhus's fellow-countrymen of Epirus bad 

188 



RETREAT FROM ITALY. 189 

disappeared, and the ranks of his army were 
filled with unprincipled and destitute wretches, 
w'ho felt no interest in his cause — no pride in 
his success — no concern for his honor. They 
adhered to him only for the sake of the pay and 
the indulgences of a soldier's life, and for 
their occasional hopes of plunder. 

Besides the condition of his army, Pyrrhus 
found the situation of his affairs in other re- 
spects very critical on his arrival at Tarentum. 
The Romans had made great progress, during 
his absence, in subjugating the whole country 
to their sway. Cities and towns, which had 
been under his dominion when he went to Sici- 
ly, had been taken by the Romans, or had gone 
over to them of their own accord. The govern- 
ment which he had established at Tarentum 
was thus curtailed of power, and shut in in re- 
spect to territory; and he felt himself com- 
pelled immediately to take the field, in order 
to recover his lost ground. 

He adopted vigorous measures immediately 
to re-enforce his army, and to obain the neces - 
sary supplies. His treasury was exhausted ; in 
order to replenish it, he dispatched embassa- 
dors to his various allies to borrow money. 
He knew, of course, that a large portion of his 
army would abandon him immediately so soon 



IQO PYRRHUS. 

as they should find that he was unable to pay 
them. He was, therefore, quite uneasy for a 
time in respect to the state of his finances, and 
he instructed his embassadors to press the ur- 
gency of his wants upon his allies in a very 
earnest manner. 

He did not, however, wait for the result of 
these measures, but immediately commenced 
active operations in the field. One of his first 
exploits was the recapture of Locri, a city situ- 
ated on the southern shore of Italy, as will be 
seen by the map. This city had been in his 
possession before he went to Sicily, but it had 
gone over to the Romans during his absence. 
Locri was a very considerable town and the re- 
covery of it from the Romans was considered 
quite an important gain. The place derived 
its consequence, in some considerable degree, 
from a celebrated temple which stood there. 
It was the temple of Proserpina, the Goddess 
of Death. This temple was magnificent in its 
structure, and it was enriched with very costly 
and valuable treasures. It not only gave dis- 
tinction to th'e town in which it stood, but, on 
account of an extraordinary train of circum- 
stances which occurred in connection with it, 
it became the occasion of one of the most im- 
portant incidents in Pyrrhus's history. 



RETREAT FROM ITALY. I9I 

Proserpina, as has already been intimated 
was the Goddess of Death. It is very difficult 
for us at the present day to understand and 
appreciate the conceptions which the Greeks 
and Romans, in ancient times, entertained oi 
the supernatural beings which they worshiped 
-—those strange creations, in which we see his- 
toric truth, poetic fancy, and a sublime super- 
stition so singularly blended. To aid us in 
rightly understanding this subject, we must 
remember that in those days the boundaries of 
what was known as actual reality were very 
uncertain and vague. Only a very small por- 
tion, either of the visible world or of the do- 
main of science and philosophy, had then been 
explored ; and in the thoughts and conceptions 
of every man, the natural and the true passed 
by insensible gradations, on every hand, into 
the monstrous and the supernatural, there 
being no principles of any kind established in 
men's minds to m.ark the boundaries where the 
true and the possible must end, and all beyond 
be impossible and absurd. The knowledge, 
therefore, that men derived from the observa- 
tion of such truths and such objects as were 
immediately around them, passed by insensible 
gradations into the regions of fancy and ro- 
mance, and all was believed together. They 



192 PYRRHUS. 

saw lions and e'lep'hamts in the lands Whidh were 
near, and which they knew ; and they beUeved 
in the centaurs, the mermaids, the 'hippogriffs, 
and the dragons, which Dhey imagined inhabit- 
ing regions more remote. They saw heroes 
and chieftains in the plains and in Uhe valleys 
below; and they had no reason to disbelieve 
in the existence of gods and demi-god's upon 
the summits of the blue and beautiful mount- 
ains above, where, for aug^ht they knew, there 
might lie boundless territories of verdure and 
loveliness, w'holly inaccessible to mian. In the 
same manner, beneath fhe ear'tjh scwniewhere, 
they knew not where, there lay, as they imag- 
ined, extended region's destined to receive the 
spirits of the dead, with approadhes leading to 
it, through mysterious grottoes and caverns, 
from above. Proserpina was the Goddess of 
Death, and the queen of these lower abodes. 

Various stories were toM of >her origin and 
history. The one most dharacteristic and most 
minutely detailed is this : 

She was the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres. 
She was very beautiful ; and, in order to pro- 
tect her from the importunity of lovers, her 
mother sent ber, under *tfi-e care of an attendant 
named Calligena, to a cavern in Sicily, and con- 
cealed her there. The mouth of the cavern was 



RETREAT FROM ITALY. I93 

guarded by dragons. Pluto, who was the god 
of the inferior regions, asked her of Jupiter, 
her father, for his wife. Jupiter consented, 
and sent Venus to entice her out of her cavern, 
that Pluto might obtain her. Venus, attended 
by Minerva and Diana, proceeded to the cav- 
ern where Proserpina was concealed. The three 
goddesses contrived some means to keep the 
dragons that guarded the cavern away, and 
then easily persuaded the maiden to come out 
to take a walk. Proserpina was charmed with 
the verdure and beauty which she found 
around her on the surface of the ground, 
strongly contrasted as they were with the 
gloom and desolation of her cavern. She was 
attended by nymphs and zephyrs in her walk, 
and in their company she rambled along, ad 
miring the beauty and enjoying the fragrance 
of the flowers. Some of the flowers which 
most attracted her attention were produced on 
the spot by the miraculous power of Jupiter, 
who caused them to spring up in wonderful 
luxuriance and splendor, the more effectually 
to charm the senses of the maiden whom they 
were enticing away. At length, suddenly the 
earth opened, and Pluto appeared, coming up 
from below in a golden chariot drawn by im- 



194 PYRRHUS. 

mortal steeds, and, seizing Proserpina, he car- 
ried her down to his own abodes. 

Ceres, the mother of Proiserpina, was greatly 
distressed w^hen she learned the fate of her 
daughter. She immediately went to Jupiter, 
and implored him to restore Proserpina to the 
upper world. Jupiter, on the other hand, urged 
Ceres to consent to her remaining as the wife 
of Pluto. The mother, however, would not 
yield, and finally her tears and entreaties so far 
prevailed over Jupiter as to induce him to give 
permission to Ceres to bring Proserpina back, 
provided that she had not tasted of any food 
that grew in the regions below. Ceres accord- 
ingly went in search of her daughter. She 
found, unfortunately, that Proserpina, in walk- 
ing through the Elysian fields with Pluto, had 
incautiously eaten a pomegranate which she 
had taken from a tree that was growing there. 
She was consequently precluded from availing 
herself of Jupiter's permission to return to 
Olympus. Finally, however, Jupiter consented 
that she should divide her time between the in- 
ferior and the superior regions, spending six 
months with Pluto below, and six months with 
her mother above ; and she did so. 

Proserpina was looked upon by all man^ 
kind with feelings of great veneration and 



RETREAT FROM ITALY. I95 

awe as the goddess and queen of death, and 
she was worshiped in many places with sol- 
emn and imposing ceremonies. There was, 
moreover, in the minds of men, a certain mys- 
tical significancy in the mode of life which she 
lied, in thus dividing her time by regular al- 
ternations between the lower and upper 
worlds, that seemed to them to denote and 
typify the principle of vegetation, which may 
be regarded as, in a certain sense, alternately 
a principle of life and death, inasmuch as, for 
six months in the year, it appears in the form 
of living and growing plants, rising above the 
ground, and covering the earth with verdure 
and beauty, and then, for the six months that 
remain, it withdraws from the view, and ex- 
ists only in the form of inert and apparently 
lifeless roots and seeds, concealed in hidden 
recesses beneath the ground. Proserpina was 
thus considered the type and emblem of veg- 
etation, and she was accordingly worshiped, 
in some sense, as the goddess of resuscitation 
and life, as well as of death and the grave. 

One of the principal temples which had 
been built in honor of Proserpina was situa- 
ted, as has already been said, at Locri, and 
ceremonials and festivals were celebrated 
here, at stated intervals, with great pomp and 



196 PYRRHUS. 

parade. This temple had become very 
wealthy, too, immense treasures having been 
collected in it, consisting of gold and silver 
vessels, precious stones, and rich and splendid 
paraphernalia of every kind^the gifts and of- 
ferings which had been made, from time to 
time, by princes and kings who had attended 
the festivals. 

When Pyrrhus had reconquered Locri from 
(the Romans, and this tempjle, with all its 
treasures, fell into his power, some of his ad- 
visers suggested that, since he was in such 
urgent need of money, and all his other plans 
for supplying himself had hitherto failed, he 
should take possession of these treasures. 
They might, it was argued, be considered, in 
some sense, as public property; and, as the 
Locrians had revolted from him in his ab- 
sence, and had now been conquered anew, 
le was entitled to regard these riches as the 
spoils of victory. Pyrrhus determined to fol- 
low this advice. He took possession of the 
richest and most valuable of the articles which 
the temple contained, and, putting them on 
board ships which he sent to Locri for the 
purpose, he undertook to transport them to 
Tarentum. He intended to convert them 



RETREAT FROM ITALY. IQ/ 

,here into money, in order to obtain funds to 
supply the wants of his army. 

The ships, however, on their passage along 
the coast, encountered a terrible storm, and 
were nearly all wrecked and destroyed. The 
mariners who had navigated the vessels were 
drowned, while yet the sacred treasures were 
saved, and that, too, as it would seem, by 
some supernatural agency, since the same 
surges which overwhelmed and destroyed the 
sacrilegious ships and seamen, washed the 
cases in which the holy treasures had been 
packed up upon the beach ; and there the mes- 
sengers of Pyrrhus found them, scattered 
among the rocks and on the sand at various 
points along the shore. Pyrrhus was greatly 
terrified at this disaster. He conceived that 
it was a judgment of Heaveji, inflicted upon 
him through the influence and agency of 
Proserpina, as a punishment for his impious 
presumption in despoiling her shrine. He 
carefully collected all that the sea had saved, 
and sent every thing back to Locri. He in" 
stituted solemn services there in honor ot. 
Prosperpina, to express his penitence for his 
faults, and, to give a still more decisive proof 
of his desire to appease her anger, he put to 

14— Pyrrhua 



198 PYRRHUS. 

death the counselors who had advised him to 
take the treasures. 

Notwithstanding all these attempts to atone 
for his offense, Pyrrhus could not dispel from 
his mind the gloomy impression which had 
been made upon it by the idea that he had in- 
curred the direct displeasure of Heaven. He 
did not believe that the anger of Proserpina 
was ever fully appeased ; and whenever mis- 
fortunes and calamities befell him in his sub 
sequent career, he attributed them to the dis- 
pleasure of the goddess of death, who, as he 
believed, followed him every where, and was 
intent on effecting his ruin. 

It was now late in the season, and the mil- 
itary operations both of Pyrrhus and of the 
Romans were, in a great measure, suspended 
until spring. Pyrrhus spent the interval in 
making arrangements for taking the field as 
soon as the winter should be over. He had, 
however, many difficulties to contend with. 
His financial embarrassment still continued. 
His efforts to procure funds were only very 
partially successful. The people too, in all 
the legion about Tarentum, were, he found, 
wholly alienated from him. They had not 
forgiven him for having left them to go to 
Sicily, and, in consequence of this abandon- 



RETREAT FROM ITALY. I99 

ment of their cause, they had lost much of 
their confidence in him as their protector, 
while every thing like enthusiasm in his serv- 
ice was wholly gone. Through these and 
other causes, he encountered innumerable im- 
pediments in executing his plans, and his 
mind was harassed with continual disap- 
pointment and anxiety. 

Such, however, was still his resolution and 
energy, that when the season arrived for tak- 
ing the field, he had a considerable force in 
readiness, and he marched out of Tarentum 
at the head of it, to go and meet the Romans. 
The Romans themselves, on the other hand, 
had raised a very large force, and had sent it 
forward in two divisions, under the command 
of the two consuls. These two divisions took 
different routes; one passing to the north, 
through the province of Samnium, and the 
other to the south, through Lucania — both, 
however, leading toward Tarentum. Pyrrhus 
divided his forces also into two parts. One 
body of troops he sent northwardly into 
Samnium, to meet the northern division of the 
Roman army, while with the other he 
advanced himself by the more southern route, 
to meet the Roman consul who was coming 



:200 / PYRRHUS. 

through Lucania. The name of this consul 
was Curius Dentatus. 

Pyrrhus advanced into Lucania. The Ro- 
man general, when he found that his enemy 
was coming, thought it most prudent to send 
for the other division of his army — namely, 
the one which was marching through Sam- 
nium^ — and to wait until it should arrive be- 
fore giving Pyrrhus battle. He accordingly 
dispatched the necessary orders to Lentulus, 
who commanded the northern division, and, 
in the meantime, intrenched himself in a 
strong encampment at a place called Bene- 
ventum. Pyrrhus entered Lucania and ad- 
vanced toward Beneventum, and, after ascer- 
taining the state of the case in respect to the 
situation of the camp and the plans of Curius, 
he paused at some distance from the Roman 
position, in order to consider what it was best 
for him to do. He finally came to the conclu- 
sion that it was very important that his con- 
flict with the Romans under Curius should 
take place before Lentulus should arrive to 
re-enforce them, and so he determined to ad- 
vance rapidly, and fall upon and surprise 
them in their intrenchments before they were 
aware of his approach. This plan he accord- 
ingly attempted to execute. He advanced in 



RETREAT FROM ITALY. 201 

the ordinary manner and by the pubUc roads 
of the country until he began to draw near to 
Beneventum. At the close of the day he en- 
camped as usual; but, instead of waiting in 
his camp until the following day, and then 
marching on in his accustomed manner, he 
procured guides to lead his troops around by 
a circuitous path among the mountains, with 
a view of coming down suddenly and unex- 
pectedly upon the camp of the Romans from 
the hills very early in the morning. An im- 
mense number of torches were provided, to 
furnish light for the soldiers in traversing the 
dark forests and gloomy ravines through 
which their pathway lay. 

Notwithsanding all the precautions which 
had been taken, the difficulties of the route 
were so great that the progress of the troops 
was very much impeded. The track was 
everywhere encumbered with bushes, rocks, 
fallen trees, and swampy tracts of ground, so 
that the soldiers made way very slowly. Great 
numbers of the torches failed in the course of 
the night, some getting extinguished by acci- 
dent, and others going out from exhaustion of 
fuel. By these means great numbers of troops 
were left in the dark, and after groping about 
for a time in devious and uncertain paths, be- 



202 PYRftHUS. 

came hopelessly lost in the forest. Notwith- 
standing all these difficulties and discourage- 
ments, however, the main body of the army 
pressed resolutely on, and, just about day- 
break, the van came out upon the heights 
above the Roman encampment. As soon as 
a sufficient number were assembled, they were 
at once marshaled in battle array, and, de- 
scending from the mountains, they made a 
furious onset upon the intrenchments of the 
enemy. 

The Romans were taken wholly by surprise, 
and their camp became immediately a scene 
of the wildest confusion. The men started up 
every where out of their sleep and seized their 
arms. They were soon in a situation to make 
a very effectual resistance to the attack of thei*" 
enemies. They first beat the assailants back 
from the points where they were endeavoring 
to gain admission, and then, encouraged by 
their success, they sallied forth from their in- 
trenchments, and became assailants in their 
turn. The Greeks were soon overpowered, 
and forced to retire altogether from the 
ground. A great many were killed, and some 
elephants, which Pyrrhus had contrived by 
some means to bring up to the spot, were 



RETREAT FROM ITALY. 203 

taken. The Romans were, of course, greatly 
elated at this victory. 

In fact, so much was Curius gratified and 
pleased with this success, and so great was the 
confidence with which it inspired him, that he 
determined to wait no longer for Lentulus, 
but to march out at once and give Pyrrhus 
battle. He accordingly brought forth his 
troops and drew them up on a plain near his 
encampment, posting them in such a way as 
to gain a certain advantage for himself in the 
nature of the ground which he had chosen, 
while yet, since there was nothing but the open 
field between himself and his enemy, the 
movement was a fair and regular challenge to 
battle. Pyrrhus accepted this challenge by 
bringing up his forces to the field, and the 
conflict began. 

As soon as the combatants were fairly en- 
gaged, one of the wings of Pyrrhus's army be- 
gan to give way. The other wing, on the 
contrary, which was the one that Pyrrhus him- 
self personally commanded, was victorious. 
Pyrrhus himself led his soldiers on ; and he in- 
spired them with so much strength and en- 
ergy by his own reckless daring, that all those 
portions of the Roman army which were op- 
posed to them were beaten and driven back 



204 PYRRHUS. V. 

into the camp. This success, however, was not 
wholly owing to the personal prowess of Pyr- 
rhus. It was due, in a great measure, to the 
power of the elephants, for they fought in that 
part of the field. As the Romans were almost 
wholly unaccustomed to the warfare of ele- 
phants, they knew not how to resist them ; and 
the huge beasts bore down all before them 
wherever they moved. In this crisis, Curius 
ordered a fresh body of troops to advance. It 
was a corps of reserve, which he had stationed 
near the camp under orders to hold themselves 
in readiness there, to come forward and act 
at any moment, and at any part of the field 
wherever their services might be required. 
These troops were now summoned to advance 
and attack the elephants. They accordingly 
came nushing on, brandishing their swords m 
one hand, and bearing burning torches, with 
which they had been provided for the occa- 
sion, in the other. The torches they threw at 
the elephants as soon as they came near, in 
order to terrify them and make them unman- 
ageable ; and then, with their swords, they at- 
tacked the keepers and drivers of the beasts, 
and the men who fought in connection with 
them. The success of this onset was so great, 
that the elephants soon became unmanageable. 



RETREAT FROM ITALY. 205 

They even broke into the phalanx, and threw 
the ranks of it into confusion, overturning and 
trampling upon the men, and falling them- 
selves upon the slain, under the wounds which 
the spears inflicted upon them. 

A remarkable incident is said to have oc- 
curred in the midst of this scene of confusion 
and terror, which strikingly illustrates the 
strength of the maternal instinct, even among 
brutes. It happened that there was a young 
elephant, and also its mother, in the same di- 
vision of Pyrrhus's army. The former, though 
young, was sufficiently grov/n to serve as an 
elephant of war, and, as it happened, its post 
on the field of battle was not very far from that 
of its mother. In the course of the battle the 
young elephant was wounded, and it uttered 
immediately a piercing cry of pain and terror. 
The mother heard the cry, and recognized the 
voice that uttered it through all the din and up- 
roar of the battle. She immediately became 
wholly ungovernable, and, breaking away 
from the control of her keepers, she rushed 
forward, trampling down everything in her 
way, to rescue and protect her offspring. This 
incident occurred at the commencement of the 
attack which the Roman reserve made upon 
the elephants, and contributed very essentially 



206 PYRRHUS. 

to the panic and confusion which followed. 

In the end Pyrrhus was entirely defeated. 
He was compelled to abandon his camp and 
to retire toward Tarentum. The Romans im- 
mediately advanced, flushed with victory, and 
carrying all before them. Pyrrhus retreated 
faster and faster, his numbers continually di- 
minishing as he fled, until at last, when he 
reached Tarentum, he had only a few horse- 
men in his train. He sent off the most urgent 
requests to his friends and allies in Greece to 
furnish him aid. The help, however, did not 
come, and Pyrrhus, in order to keep the small 
remnant that still adhered to him together, re- 
sorted to the desperate expedient of forging 
letters from his friends, promising speedy and 
abundant supplies, and showing these letters 
to his officers, to prevent them from being 
wholly discouraged and abandoning his cause. 
This miserable contrivance, however, even if 
successful, could only afford a momentary re- 
lief. Pyrrhus soon found that all hope and 
possibility of retrieving his fortunes in Italy 
had entirely disappeared, and that no alterna- 
tive was left to him but to abandon the 
ground. So, pretending to wonder why his 
allies did not send forward the succors which 
they had promised in their letters, and saying 



RETREAT FROM ITALY. 



207 



that, since they were so dilatory and remiss, 
he must go himself and bring them, butprom-^ 




Panic of the Elephants. 

ising that he would immediately return, he 
set sail from Tarentum, and, crossing the sea, 
went home to his own kingdom. He arrived 
safely in Epirus after an absence of six years. 




CHAPTER IX. 



THE FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS, 



The reader will perhaps recollect that when 
Pyrrhus withdrew from Macedon, before he 
embarked on his celebrated expedition into 
Italy, the enemy before he was compelled to re- 
tire was Lysimachus. Lysimachus continued 
to reign in Macedon for some time after Pyr- 
rhus had gone, until, finally, he was himself 
overthrown, under circumstances of a very re- 
markable character. In fact, his whole histor^^ 
affords a striking illustration of the nature of 
the results which often followed, in ancient 
times, from the system of government which 
then almost universally prevailed — a system 
in which the supreme power was considered 
as rightfully belonging to some sovereign who 
derived it from his ancestors by hereditary de- 
scent, and who, in the exercise of it, was en- 
tirely above all sense of responsibility to the 
subjects of his dominion. 

It has sometimes been said by writers on 

the theory of civil government that the prin- 

208 



FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS. 209 

ciple of hereditary sovereignty in the govern- 
ment of a nation has a decided advantage over 
any elective mode of designating the chief 
magistrate, on account of its certainty. If 
the system is such that, on the death of a mon- 
arch, the supreme power descends to his eldest 
son, the succession is determined at once, with- 
out debate or delay. If, on the other hand, an 
election is to take place, there must be a con- 
test. Parties are formed; plans and counter- 
plans are laid; a protracted and heated con- 
troversy ensues ; and when, finally, the voting 
is ended, there is sometimes doubt and uncer- 
tainty in ascertaining the true result, and very 
often an angry and obstinate refusal to ac- 
quiesce in it when it is determined. Thus the 
principle of hereditary descent seems simple, 
clear, and liable to no uncertainty or doubt, 
while that of popular election tends to lead the 
country subject to it into endless disputes, and 
often ultimately to civil war. 

But though this may be in theory the oper- 
ation of the two systems, in actual practice it 
has been found that the hereditary principle 
has very little advantage over any other in re- 
spect to the avoidance of uncertainty and dis- 
pute. Among the innumerable forms and 
phases which the principle of hereditary de- 



210 PYRRHUS. 

scent assumes in actual life, the cases in which 
one acknowledgv'^^.d and unquestioned sover- 
eign of a country dies, and leaves one acknow- 
ledged and unquestioned heir, are compara- 
tively few. The relationships existing among 
the various branches of a family are often ex- 
tremely intricate and complicated. Sometimes 
they become viciously entangled with each 
other by intermarriages ; sometimes the claims 
arising under them are disturbed, or modified, 
or confused by conquests and revolutions ; and 
thus they often become so hopelessly involved 
that no human sagacity can classify or arrange 
them. The case of France at the present 
time* is a striking illustration of this difficulty, 
there being in that country no less than three 
sets of claimants who regard themselves en- 
titled to the supreme power — the representa- 
tives, namely, of the Bourbon, the Orleans, 
and the Napoleon dynasties. Each one of the 
great parties rests the claim which they sever- 
ally advance in behalf of their respective can- 
didates more or less exclusively on rights de- 
rived from their hereditary relationship to for- 
mer rulers of the kingdom, and there is no 
possible mode of settling the question between 
them but by the test of power. Even if all 
* January, 1852. 



FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS. 211 

concerned were disposed to determine the con- 
troversy by a peaceful appeal to the principles 
of the law of descent, as relating to the trans- 
mission of governmental power, no principles 
could be found that would apply to the case ; 
or, rather, so numerous are the principles that 
would be required to be taken into the ac- 
count, and so involved and complicated are 
the facts to which they must be applied, that 
any distinct solution of the question on theo- 
retical grounds would be utterly impossible. 
There is, and there can be, no means of solv- 
ing such a question but power. 

In fact, the history of the smaller monarch- 
ies of ancient times is comprised, sometimes 
for centuries almost exclusively, in narratives 
of the intrigues, the contentions, and the 
bloody wars of rival families, and rival 
branches of the same family, in asserting their 
respective claims as inheritors to the posses- 
sion of power. This truth is strikingly illus- 
trated in the events which occurred in Mace 
don during the absence of Pyrrhus in Italy 
and Sicily, in connection with the family of 
Lysimachus, and his successor in power 
there. These events we shall now proceed to 
relate in their order. 

At the time when Pyrrhus was driven from 



212 PYRRHUS. 

Macedon by Lysimachus, previous to his go- 
ing into Italy, Lysimachus was far advanced 
in age. He was, in fact, at this time nearly 
seventy years old. He commenced his mili- 
tary career during the lifetime of Alexander 
the Great, having been one of the great con- 
queror's most distinguished generals. Many 
stories were told in 'his early life, of his per- 
sonal strength and valor. On one occasion, 
as was said, when hunting in Syria, he en- 
countered a lion of immense size single- 
handed, and, after a very desperate and ob- 
stinate conflict, he succeeded in killing him, 
though not without receiving severe wounds 
himself in the contest. Another story was, 
that at one time, having displeased Alexander, 
he was condemned to suffer death, and that, 
too, in a very cruel and horrible manner. He 
was to be thrown into a lion's den. Th's was 
a mode of execution not uncommon in ancient 
times. It answered a double purpose; it not 
only served for a terrible punishment in re- 
spect to the man, but it also effected a useful 
end in respect to the animal. By giving him 
a living man to seize and devour, the savage 
ferocity of the beast was stimulated and in- 
creased, and thus he was rendered more val- 
uable for the purposes and uses for which he 



FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS. 2I3 

was retained. In the case of Lysimachus, . 
however, both these objects failed. As soon as 
he was put into the dungeon where the lion 
was awaiting him^ he attacked the beast, and, 
though unarmed, he succeeded in destroying 
him. Alexander admired so much the desper- 
ate strength and courage evinced by this ex- 
ploit, that he pardoned the criminal and re- 
stored him to favor. 

Lysimachus continued in the service of Al- 
exander as long as that monarch lived; and 
when, at the death of Alexander, the empire 
was divided among the leading generals, the 
kingdom of Thrace, which adjoins Macedon 
on the east,* was assigned to him as his por- 
tion. He is commonly designated, therefore, 
in history, as the King of Thrace ; though in 
the subsequent part of his life he obtained pos- 
session also, by conquest, of the kingdom of 
Macedon. He married, in succession, several 
wives, and experienced through them a great 
variety of domestic troubles. His second 
wife was a Sicilian princess named Amastris. 
She was a widow at the time of her marriage 
with Lysimachus, and had two sons. After 
being married to her for some time, Lysima- 
chus repudiated and abandoned her, and she 

_ *See map. 

15— Pyrihug 



214 PYRRHUS. 

returned to Sicily with her two sons, and 
lived in a certain city which belonged to 
them there. The young men were not of age, 
and Amastris accordingly assumed the gov- 
ernment of the city in their name. They, how- 
ever, quarreled with their mother, and finally 
drowned her, in order to remove her out of 
their way. Lysimachus, though he might 
justly have considered himself as in some 
sense the cause of this catastrophe, since, by 
deserting his wife and withdrawing his pro- 
tection from her, he compelled her to return 
to Sicily and put herself in the power of her 
unnatural sons, was still very indignant at the 
event, and, fitting out an expedition, he went 
to Sicily, captured the city, took the sons of 
Amastris prisoners, and put them to death 
without mercy, in retribution for their atro- 
cious crime. 

At the time when Lysimachus put away his 
wife, Amastris, he married Arsinoe, an Egyp- 
tian princess, the daughter, in fact, of Ptole- 
my, the son of Lagus, who was at this time the 
king of Egypt. How far Lysimachus was 
governed, in his repudiation of Amastris, by 
the influence of Arsinoe's personal attractions 
in winning his heart away from his fidelity to 
his legitimate wife, and how far, on the other 



FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS. 21$ 

hand, he was aHenated from her by her own 
misconduct or the violence of her temper, is 
not now known. At any rate, the SiciUan 
wife, as has been stated, was dismissed and 
sent home, and the Egyptian princess came 
into her place. 

The small degree of domestic peace and 
comfort which Lysimachiis had hitherto en- 
joyed was far from being improved by this 
change. The family of Ptolemy was dis- 
tracted by a deadly feud, and, by means of the 
marriage of Arsinoe with Lysimachus, and of 
another marriage which subsequently occur- 
red, and which will be spoken of presently, the 
quarrel was transferred, in all its bitterness, 
to the family of Lysimachus, where it produced 
the most dreadful results. 

The origin of the quarrel in the household 
of Ptolemy was this : Ptolemy married, for 
his first wife, Eurydice, the daughter of Anti- 
pater. When Eurydice, at the time of her mar- 
riage, went with her husband into Egypt, she 
was accompanied by her cousin Berenice, a 
young and beautiful widow, whom she invited 
to go with her as her companion and friend. 
A great change, however, soon took place in 
the relations which they sustained to each 
other. From being very affectionate and con- 



2l6 PYRRHUS. 

fidential friends, they became, as often hap- 
pens in similar cases, on far less conspicuous 
theatres of action, rivals and enemies. Bere- 
nice gained the afifections of Ptolemy, and at 
length he married her. Arsinoe, whom Ly- 
simachus married, was the daughter of Ptole- 
my and Berenice. Xhey had also a son who 
was named Ptolemy, and who, at the death 
of his father, succeeded him on the throne. 
This son subsequently became renowned in 
history under the name O'f Ptolemy Philadel- 
phus. He was the second monarch of the 
Ptolemaic line. 

But, besides these descendants of Berenice, 
there was another set of children in Ptolemy's 
family — namely, those by Eurydice. Eury- 
dice had a son and a daughter. The name of 
the son was Ptolemy Ceraunus ; that of the 
daughter was Lysandra. There was, of 
course, a standing and bitter feud always rag- 
ing between these two branches of the royal 
household. The two wives, though they had 
once been friends, now, of course, hated each 
other with perfect hatred. Each had her own 
circle of partisans and adherents, and the 
court was distracted for many years with the 
intrigues, the plots, the^ dissensions, and the 
endless schemes and counter schemes which 



FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS. 2\*J 

were resorted to by the two parties in their ef- 
forts to thwart and circumvent each other. As 
Arsinoe, the wife of Lysimachus, was the 
daughter of Berenice, it might have been ex- 
pected that the mfluence of Berenice's party 
would prevail in Lysimachus's court. This 
would doubtless have been the case, had it 
not been that unfortunately there was another 
alliance formed between the two families 
which complicated the connection, and led, in 
the end, to the most deplorable results. This 
other alliance was the marriage of Agathocles, 
the son of Lysimachus, with Lysandra, Eury- 
dice's daughter. Thus, in the court and fam- 
ily of Lysimachus, Berenice had a representa- 
tive in the person of her daughter Arsinoe, 
the wife of the king himself; while 
Eurydice, also, had one in the person of her 
daughter Lysandra, the wife of the king's 
son. Of course, the whole virulence of the 
quarrel was spread from Egypt to Macedon, 
and the household of Lysimachus was dis- 
tracted by the dissensions of Arsinoe and Ly- 
sandra, and by the attempts which each made 
to effect the destruction of the other. 

Of course, in this contest, the advantage was 
on the side of Arsinoe, since she was the wife 
of the king himself, while Lysandra was only 



2l8 PYRRHUS. 

the wife of his son. Still, the position and the 
influence of Lysandra were very high. x\gath- 
ocles was a prince of great consideration and 
honor. He had been very successful in his 
military campaigns, had won many battles, 
an^ had greatly extended the dominion and 
power of his father. He was a great favorite, 
in fact, both with the army and with the 
people, all of whom looked up to him as the 
hope and the pride of the kingdom. 

Of course, the bestowal of all this fame and 
honor upon Lysandra's husband only served 
to excite the rivalry and hatred of Arsinoe the 
more. She and Lysandra were sisters, or, 
rather, half-sisters — being daughters of the 
same father. They were, however, on this 
very account, natural enemies to each other, 
for their mothers were rivals. Arsinoe, of 
course, was continually devising means to cur- 
tail the growing importance and greatness of 
Agathocles. Agathocles himself, on the other 
hand, would naturally make every effort to 
thwart and counteract her designs. In the 
end, Arsinoe succeeded in convincing Lysim- 
achus that Agathocles was plotting a con- 
spiracy against him, and was intending to take 
the kingdom into his own hands. This may 
have been true. Whether it was true or false, 



FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS. 219 

however, can now never be known. At all 
events, Lysimachus was induced to believe it. 
He ordered Agathocles to be seized and put 
into prison, and then, a short time afterward, 
he caused him to be poisoned. Lysandra was 
overwhelmed with consternation and sorrow 
at this event. She was, moreover, greatly 
alarmed for herself and for her children, and 
also for her brother, Ptolemy Ceraunus, who 
was with her at this time. It was obvious that 
there could be no longer any safety for her 
in Macedon, and so, taking with her her child- 
ren, her brother, and a few friends who ad- 
hered to her cause, she made her escape from 
Macedon and went to Asia. Here she cast 
herself upon the protection of Seleucus, king 
of Syria. 

Seleucus was another of the. generals of Al- 
exander — the only one, in fact, besides Ly- 
simachus, who now survived. He had, of 
course, like Lysimachus, attained to a very ad- 
vanced period of life, being at this time more 
than seventy-five years old. These veterans 
might have been supposed to have lived long 
enough to have laid aside their ancient rival- 
ries, and to have been willing to spend their 
few remaining years in peace. But it was far 
otherwise in fact. Seleucus was pleased with 



220 PYRRHUS. 

the pretext afforded him, by the coming of Ly- 
Sandra, for embarking in new wars. Lysan- 
dra was, in a short time, followed in her flight 
by many of the nobles and chieftains of Mace- 
don, who had espoused her cause. Lysima- 
chus, in fact, had driven them away by the se- 
vere measures which he had adopted against 
them. These men assembled at the court of 
Seleucus, and there, with Lysander and Ptole- 
my Ceraunus, they began to form plans for 
invading the dominions of Lysimachus, and 
avenging the cruel death of Agathocles. Se- 
leucus was very easily induced to enter into 
these plans, and war was declared. 

Lysimachus did not wait for his enemies to 
invade his dominions; he organized an army, 
crossed the Hellespont, and marched to meet 
Seleucus in Asia Minor. The armies met in 
Phrygia. A desperate battle was fought. Ly- 
simachus was conquered and slain. 

Seleucus now determined to cross the 
Hellespont himself, and, advancing into 
Thrace and Macedon^ to annex those king- 
doms to his own domains. Ptolemy Ceraun- 
us accompanied him. This Ptolemy, it will be 
recollected, was the son of Ptolemy, king of 
Egypt, by his wife Eurydice; and, at first view, 
it might seem that he could have no claim 



FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS. 221 

whatever himself to the crown of Macedon. 
But Eurydice, his mother, was the daughter 
of Antipater, the general to whom Macedon 
had been assigned on the original division of 
the empire after Alexander's death. Anti- 
pater had reigned over the kingdom for a long 
time with great splendor and renown, and his 
name and memory were still held in great ven- 
eration by all the Macedonians. Ptolemy Cer- 
aunus began to conceive, therefore, that he 
was entitled to succeed to the kingdom as the 
grandson and heir of the monarch who was 
Alexander's immediate successor, and whose 
claims were consequently, as he contended, 
entitled to take precedence of all others. 

Moreover, Ptolemy Ceraunus had lived for 
a long time in Macedon, at the court of Ly- 
simachus, having fled there from Egypt on 
account of the quarrels in which he was in- 
volved in his father's family. He was a man 
of a very reckless and desperate character, and, 
while a young man in his father's court, he 
had shown himself very ill able to brook the 
preference which his father was disposed to 
accord to Berenice and to her children over 
his mother Eurydice and him. In fact, it was 
said that one reason which led his father to 
give Berenice's family the precedence over 



222 PYRRHUS. 

that of Eurydice, and to propose that her son 
rather than Ptolemy Ceraunus should succeed 
him, was the violent and uncontrollable spirit 
which Ceraunus displayed. At any rate, Cer- 
aunus quarreled openly with his father, and 
went to Macedon to join his sister there. He 
had subsequently spent some considerable 
time at the court of Lysimachus, and had taken 
some active part in public affairs. When 
Agathocles was poisoned, he fled with Lysan- 
dra to Seleucus \ and when the preparations 
were made by Seleucus for war with Lysima- 
chus, he probably regarded himself as in some 
sense the leader of the expedition. He con- 
sidered Seleucus as his ally, going with him 
to aid him in the attempt to recover the king- 
dom of his ancestors. 

Seleucus, however, had no such design. He 
by no means considered himself as engaged 
in prosecuting an expedition for the benefit of 
Ceraunus. His plan was the enlargement of 
his own dominion ; and as for Ceraunus, he re- 
garded him only as an adventurer following 
in his train — a useful auxiliary, perhaps, but 
by no means entitled to be considered as a 
principal in the momentous transactions which 
were taking place. Ceraunus, when he found 
what the state of the case really was, being 



FAMILY OF LVSIMACHUS. 223 

wholly unscrupulous in respect to the means 
that he. employed for the attainment of his 
ends, determined to kill Seleucus on the first 
opportunity. 

Seleucus seems to have had no suspicion of 
this design, for he advanced into Thrace, on 
his way to Macedon, without fear^ and with- 
out taking any precautions to guard himself 
from the danger of Ceraunus's meditated 
treachery. At length he arrived at a certain 
town which they told him was called Argos. 
He seemed alarmed on hearing this name, 
and, when they inquired the reason, he said 
that he had been warned by an oracle, at some 
former period of his life, to beware of Argos, 
as a place that was destined to be for him the 
scene of some mysterious and dreadful danger. 
He had supposed that another Argos was al- 
luded to in this warning, namely, an Argos in 
Greece. He had not known before of the ex- 
istence of any Argos in Thrace. If he had 
been aware of it, he would have ordered his 
march so as to have avoided it altogether ; and 
now, in consequence of the anxious forebod- 
ings that were excited by the name, he deter- 
mined to withdraw from the place without de- 
lay. He was, however, overtaken by his fate 
before he could effect his resolution. Ptole- 



224 PYRRHUS. 

my Ceraunus, watching a favorable opportun- 
ity which occurred while he was at Argos, 
came stealthily up behind the aged king, and 
stabbed him in the back with a dagger. Se- 
leucus immediately fell down and died. 

Ptolemy Ceraunus forthwith organized a 
body of adherents and proceeded to Macedon, 
where he assumed the diadem, and caused 
himself to be proclaimed king. He found the 
country distracted by dissensions, many par- 
ties having been formed, from time to time, in 
the course of the preceding reigns, each of 
which was now disposed to come forward with 
its candidates and its claims. All these Ptole- 
my Ceraunus boldly set aside. He endeavored 
to secure all those who were friendly to the 
ancient house of Antipater by saying that he 
was Antipater's grandson and heir; and, on 
the other hand, to conciliate the partisans of 
Lysimachus, by saying that he was Lysima- 
chus's avenger. This was in one sense true, 
for he had murdered Seleucus, the man by 
whom Lysimachus had been destroyed. He 
relied, however, after all, for the means of 
sustaining himself in his new position, not on 
his reasons, but on his troops ; and he accord- 
ingly advanced into the country more as a 
conqueror coming to subjugate a nation by 



FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS. 22^ 

force, than as a prince succeeding peacefully 
to an hereditary crown. 

He soon had many rivals and enemies in the 
field against him. The three principal ones 
were Antiochus, Antigontis, and Pyrrhus. An- 
tiochus was the son of Seleucus. He main- 
tained that his father had fairly conquered the 
kingdom of Macedon, and had acquired the 
right to reign over it ; that Ptolemy Ceraunus, 
by assassinating Seleucus, had not divested 
him of any of his rights, but that they all de- 
scended unimpaired to his son, and that he 
himself, therefore, was the true king of Mace- 
don. Antigonus was the son of Demetrius, 
who had reigned in Macedon at a former 
period, before Lysimachus had invaded and 
conquered the kingdom. Antigonus there- 
fore maintained that his right was superior to 
that of Ptolemy, for his father had been the 
acknowledged sovereign of the country at a 
period subsequent to that of the reign of An- 
tipater. Pyrrhus was the third claimant. He 
had held Macedon by conquest immediately 
before the reign of Lysimachus, and now, 
since Lysimachus had been deposed, his 
rights, as he alleged, revived. In a 
word, there were four competitors for the 
throne, each urging claims compounded 



226 PYRRHUS. 

of rights of conquest and of inheritance, 
so complicated and so involved, one 
with the other, as to render all at- 
tempts at a peaceable adjudication of them 
absolutely hopeless. There could be no pos 
sible way of determining who was best enti- 
tled to the throne in such a case. The only 
question, therefore, that remained was, who 
was best able to take and keep it. 

This question Ptolemy Ceraunus had first 
to try with Antigonus, who came to invade 
the country with a fleet and an army from 
Greece. After a very short but violent con- 
test, Antigonus was defeated, both by sea and 
by land, and Ceraunus remained master of the 
kingdom. This triumph greatly strength- 
ened his power in respect to the other com- 
petitors. He, in fact, contrived to settle the 
question with them by treaty, in which they 
acknowledged him as king. In the case of 
Pyrrhus, he agreed, in consideration of being 
allowed peaceably to retain possession of his 
kingdom, to furnish a certain amount of mili- 
tary aid to strengthen the hands of Pyrrhus 
in the wars in which he was then engaged in 
Italy and Sicily. The force which he thus 
furnished consisted of five thousand foot, four 
thousand horse, and fifty elephants. 



FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS. 227 

Thus it would seem that every thing was 
settled. There was, however, one difficulty 
still remaining. Arsinoe, the widow of Ly° 
simachus, still lived. It was Arsinoe, it will 
be recollected, whose jealousy of her half-sis- 
ter, Lysandra, had caused the death of Aga- 
thocles and the flight of Lysandra, and which 
had led to the expedition of Seleucus, and the 
subsequent revolution in Macedou. When 
her husband was killed, she, instead of submit- 
ting at once to the change of government, shut 
herself up in Cassandria, a rich and well-de- 
fended city. She had her sons with her, who, 
as the children of Lysimachus, were heirs to 
the throne. She was well aware that she had, 
for the time being, no means at her command 
for supporting the claims of her children, but 
she was fully determined not to relinquish 
them, but to defend herself and her children 
in the city of Cassandria, as well as she was 
able, until some change should take place in 
the aspect of public affairs. Ceraunus, of 
course, saw in her a very formidable and dan- 
gerous opponent; and, after having triumph- 
ed over Antigonus, and concluded his peace 
with Antiochus and with Pyrrhus, he ad- 
vanced toward Cassandria, revolving in his 
mind the question by what means he could 

16— Pyrrhus 



228 PYRRHUS. 

best manage to get Arsinoe and her children 
into his power. 

He concluded to try the effect of cunning 
and treachery before resorting to force. He 
accordingly sent a message to Arsinoe, pro- 
posing that, instead of quarreling for the 
kingdom, they should unite their claims, and 
asking her, for this purpose, to become his 
wife. He would marry her, he said, and adopt 
her children as his own, and thus the whole 
question would be amicably settled. 

Arsinoe very readily acceded to this pro- 
posal. It is true that she was the half-sister of 
Ceraunus ; but this relationship was no bar to 
a matrimonial union, according to the ideas 
that prevailed in the courts of kings in those 
days. Arsinoe, accordingly, gave her consent 
to the proposal, and opened the gates of the 
city to Ceraunus and his troops. Ceraunus im- 
mediately put her two sons to death. Ar- 
sinoe herself fled from the city. Very prob- 
ably Ceraunus allowed her to escape, since, 
as she herself had no claim to the throne, any 
open violence offered to her would have been 
a gratuitous crime, which would have increas- 
ed, unnecessarily, the odium that would nat- 
urally attach to Ceraunus's proceedings. At 
any rate, Arsinoe escaped, and, after various 



FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS. 229 

wanderings, found her way back to her 
former home in her father's court at Alexan- 
dria. 

The heart of Ceraunus was now filled with 
exultation and pride. All his schemes had 
proved successful, and he found himself, at 
last, in secure possession, as he thought, of a 
powerful and wealthy kingdom. He wrote 
home to his brother in Egypt, Ptolemy Phil- 
adelphus— by whom, as the reader will recol- 
lect, he had been supplanted there, in conse- 
quence of his father's preference for the child- 
ren of Berenice — saying that he now acquiesc- 
ed in that disposition of the kingdom of Egypt, 
since he had acquired for himself a better 
kingdom in Macedon. He proceeded to com- 
plete the organization of his government. He 
recruited his armies; he fortified his towns; 
and began to consider himself as firmly es- 
tablished on his throne. All his dreams, 
however, of security and peace, were soon 
brought to a very sudden termination. 

There was a race of half-civilized people on 
the banks of the Danube called Gauls. Some 
tribes of this nation afterward settled in what 
is now France, and gave their name to that 
country. At the period, however, of the 
events which we are here relating, the chief 



230 PYRRHUS. 

seat of their dominion was a region on the 
banks of the Danube, north of Macedon and 
Thrace. Here they had been for some tirwz 
concentrating their forces and gradually in- 
creasing in power, although their movements 
had been very little regarded by Ceraunus. 
Now, however, a deputation suddenly appear- 
ed at Ceraunus's capital, to say that they were 
prepared for an invasion of his dominions, 
and asking him how much money he would 
give for peace. Ceraunus, in the pride of his 
newly-established power, treated this proposal 
with derision. He directed the embassadors 
to go back and say that, far from wishing to 
purchase peace, he would not allow peace to 
them, unless they immediately sent him all 
their principal generals, as hostages for their 
good behavior. Of course, after such an in- 
terchange of messages as this, both parties im- 
mediately prepared for war. 

Ceraunus assembled all the forces that he 
could command, marched northward to meet 
his enemy, and a great battle was fought be- 
tween the two armies. Ceraunus commanded 
in person in this conflict. He rode into the 
field at the head of his troops, mounted on an 
elephant. In the course of the action he was 
wounded, and the elephant on which he rodr 



FAMILY OF LYSIMACHUS. 



231 



becoming infuriated at the same time, perhaps 
from being wounded himself too, threw his 
rider to the ground. The Gauls who were 




THE FALLEN ELEPHANT. 

fighting around him immediately seized him. 
Without any hesitation or delay they cut off 
^ihis head, and, raising it on the point of a pike, 
'they bore it around the field in triumph. This 
^jiectacle so appalled and intimidated the ar- 
my of the Macedonians, that the ranks were 
soon broken, and the troops, giving way, fled 
in all .directions, and the Gauls found them- 
selves masters of the field. 

The death of Ptolemy Ceraunus was, of 



2Z2 



PYRRHUS. 



course, the signal for all the old claimants to 
the throne to come forward with their several 
pretensions anew A protracted period of dis- 
sension and misrule ensued, during which the 
Gauls made dreadful havoc in all the northern 
portions of Macedon. Antigonus at last suc- 
ceeded in gaining the advantage, and obtained 
a sort of nominal possession of the throne 
which he held until the time when Pyrrhus 
returned to Epirus from Italy. Pyrrhus, be- 
ing informed of this state of things, could not 
resist the desire which he felt of making an 
incursion into Macedon, and seizing for him- 
self the prize for which rivals, no better en- 
titled to it than he, were so fiercely con- 
tending. 




Seleucus 



Lysimachus. 




CHAPTER X. 



THE RECONQUEST OF MACEDON. 



It was the great misfortune of Pyrrhus's 
life, a misfortune resulting apparently from 
an inherent and radical defect in his charac- 
ter, that he had no settled plans or purposes, 
but embarked in one project after another, as 
accident or caprice might incline him, appar- 
ently without any forethought, consideration, 
or design. He seemed to form no plan, to 
live for no object, to contemplate no end, but 
was governed by a sort of blind and instinct- 
ive impulse, .which led him to love danger, 
and to take a wild and savage delight in the 
performance of military exploits on their own 
account, and without regard to any ultimate 
end or aim to be accomplished by them. Thus, 
although he evinced great power, he produced 
no permanent effects. There was no steadi- 
ness or perseverance in his action, and there 
could be none, for in his whole course of pol- 
icy there were no ulterior ends in view by 

which perseverance could be sustained. He 

233 



234 PYRRHUS. 

was, consequently, always ready to abandon 
any enterprise in which he might be engaged 
as soon as it began to be involved in difficul- 
ties requiring the exercise of patience, endur- 
ance, and self-denial, and to embark in any 
new undertaking, provided that it promised 
to bring him speedily upon a field of battle. 
He was, in a word, the type and exemplar of 
that large class of able men who waste their 
lives in a succession of efforts, which, though 
they evince great talent in those who perform 
them, being still without plan or aim, end 
without producing any result. Such men of- 
ten, like Pyrrhus, attain to a certain species 
of gieatness. They are famed among men 
for what they seem to have the power to do, 
and not for any thing that they have actually 
done. 

In accordance with this view of Pyrrhus's 
character, we see him changing continually 
the sphere of his action from one country to 
another, gaining great victories every where, 
and evincing in all his operations — in the or- 
ganizing and assembling of his armies, in 
his marches, in his encampments, and in the 
disposition of his troops on the field of battle, 
and especially in his conduct during the 
period of actual conflict — the most indomit- 



RECONQUEST OF MACEDON. 235 

able energy and the most consummate mili- 
tary skill. But when the battle was fought 
and the victory gained, and an occasion su- 
pervened requiring a' cool and calculating de- 
liberation in the forming of future plans, and 
a steady adherence to them when formed, the 
character and resources of Pyrrhus's mind 
were found woefully wanting. The first sum- 
mons from any other quarter, inviting him to 
a field of more immediate excitement and ac- 
tion, was always sufficient to call him away. 
Thus he changed his field of action succes- 
sively from Macedon to Italy, from Italy to 
Sicily, from Sicily back to Italy, and from 
Italy to Macedon again, perpetually making 
new beginnings, but nowhere attaining any 
ends. 

His determination to invade Macedon once 
more, on his return to Epirus from Italy, was 
prompted, apparently, by the mere accident 
that the government was unsettled, and that 
Anti^onus was insecure in his possession of 
the throne. He had no intention, when he 
first embarked in this scheme, of attempting 
the conquest of Macedon, but only designed 
to make a predatory incursion into the coun- 
try for the purpose of plunder, its defenseless 
condition affording him, as he thought, a 



2'>^(i PYRRHUS. 

favorable opportunity of doing this. The plea 
on which he justified this invasion was, that 
Antigonus was his enemy. Ptolemy Cerau- 
nus had made a treaty of alliance with him, 
and had furnished him with troops for re- 
cruiting and re-enforcing his armies in Italy, 
as has already been stated; but Antigonus, 
when called upon, had refused to do this. 
This, of course, gave Pyrrhus ample justifi- 
cation, as he imagined, for his intended incur- 
sion into the Macedonian realms. 

Besides this, however, there was another 
justification, namely, that of necessity. Al- 
though Pyrrhus had been compelled to with- 
draw from Italy, he had not returned by any 
means alone, but had brought quite a large 
army with him, consisting of many thousands 
of men, all of whom must now be fed and 
paid. All the resources of his own kingdom 
had been wellnigh exhausted by the drafts 
which he had made upon them to sustain him- 
self in Italy, and it was now necessary, he 
thought, to embark in some war, as a means 
of finding employment and subsistence for 
these troops. He determined, therfore, on 
every account, to make a foray into Macedon. 

Before setting off on his expedition, he con- 
trived to obtain a considerable force from 



RECONOUEST OF MACEDON. 23/ 

among the Gauls as auxiliaries. Antigonus, 
also, had Gauls in his service, for they them- 
selves were divided, as it would seem, in re- 
spect both to their policy and their leaders, as 
well as the Macedonians ; and Antigonus, tak- 
ing advantage of their dissensions, had con- 
trived to enlist some portion of them in his 
cause, while the rest were the more easily, 
on that very account, induced to join the ex- 
pedition of Pyrrhus. Things being in this 
state, Pyrrhus, after completing his prepara- 
tions, commenced his march, and soon cross- 
ed the Macedonian frontier. 

As was usually the case with the enterprises 
which he engaged in, he was, in the outset, 
very successful. He conquered several cities 
and towns as he advanced, and soon began to 
entertain higher views in respect to the ob- 
ject of his expedition than he had at first 
formed. Instead of merely plundering the 
frontier, as he had at first intended, he began 
to think that it would be possible for him to 
subdue Antigonus entirely, and reannex the 
whole of Macedon to liis dominions. He was 
well known in Macedon, his former cam- 
paigns in that country having brought him 
very extensively before the people and the 
army there. He had been a general favorite, 



238 PYRRHUS. 

too, among them at the time when he had 
been their ruler; the people admired his per- 
sonal qualities as a soldier, and had been ac- 
customed to compare him with Alexander, 
whom, in his appearance and manners, and in 
a certain air of military frankness and gener- 
osity which characterized him, he was said 
strongly to resemble. Pyrrhus now found, as 
he advanced into the country of Macedonia, 
that the people were disposed to regard him 
with the same sentiments of favor which they 
had formerly entertained for him. Several of 
the garrisons of the cities joined his standard ; 
and the detachments of troops which Antig- 
onus sent forward to the frontier to check his 
progress, instead of giving him battle, went 
over to him in a body and espoused his cause. 
In a word, Pyrrhus found that, unexpectedly 
to himself, his expedition, instead of being 
merely an incursion across the frontiers on a 
plundering foray, was assuming the charac- 
ter of a regular invasion. In short, the prog- 
ress that he made was such, that it soon be- 
came manifest that to meet Antigonus in one 
pitched battle, and to gain one victory, was 
all that was required to complete the con- 
quest of the country. 

He accordingly concentrated his forces 



RECONQUEST OF MACEDON. 239 

more and more, strengthened himself by every 
means in his power, and advanced further and 
further into the interior of the country. An- 
tigonus began to retire, desirous, perhaps, of 
reaching some ground where he could post 
him'self advantageously. Pyrrhus, acting 
with his customary energy, soon overtook the 
enemy. He came up with the rear of Antig- 
onus's army in a narrow defile among the 
mountains ; at least, the place is designated 
as a narrow defile by the ancient historian 
who narrates these events, though, from the 
number of men that were engaged in the ac- 
tion which ensued, as well as from the nature 
of the action itself, as a historian describes it, 
it would seem that there must have been a 
considerable breadth of level ground in the 
bottom of the gorge. 

The main body of Antigonus's troops was 
the phialanx. The Macedonian phalanx is 
considered one of the most extraordinary 
military contrivances of ancient times. The 
invention of it was ascribed to Philip, the 
father of Alexander the Great, though it is 
probable that it was only improved and per- 
fected, and brought into general use, but not 
really originated by him. The single phalanx 
was formed of a body of about four thousand 



^40 PYRRHUS. 

men. These men were arranged in a com- 
pact form, the whole body consisting of six- 
teen ranks, and each rank of two hundred 
and fifty-six men. These men wore each a 
short sword, to be used in cases of emergen- 
cy, and were defended by large shields. The 
main peculiarity, however, of their armor, 
and the one on which the principal power of 
the phalanx depended as a military body, was 
in the immensely long spears which they car- 
ried. These spears were generally twenty- 
one, and sometimes twenty-four feet long. 
The handles were slender, though strong, 
and the points were tipped with steel. The 
spears were not intended to be thrown, but 
to be held firmly in the hands, and pointed 
toward the enemy ; and they were so long, 
and the ranks of the men were so close to- 
rether, that the spears of the fifth rank pro- 
jected several feet before the men who stood 
in the front rank. Thus each man in the front 
rank had five steel-pointed spears projecting 
to different distances before him, while the 
men who stood in ranks further behind rested 
their spears upon the slhoulders of those who 
were before them, so as to elevate the points 
into the air. 

The men were protected by large shields, 



RECONQUEST OF MACEDON. 24 1 

which, when the phalanx was formed in close 
array, just touched each other, and formed an 
impregnable defense. In a word, the phalanx, 
as it moved slowly over the plain, presented 
the appearance of a vast monster, covered 
with scales, and bristling with points of steel 
— a sort of military porcupine, which nothing 
could approach or in any way injure. Missiles 
thrown toward it were intercepted by the 
shields, and fell harmless to the ground. 
Darts, arrows, javelins, and every other 
weapon which could be projected from a dis- 
tance, were equally ineffectual, and no one 
could come near enough to men thus protect- 
ed to strike at them with the sword. Even 
cavalry were utterly powerless in attacking 
such chevaux de frise as the phalanx pre- 
sented. No charge, however furious, could 
break its serrated ranks; an onset upon it 
could only end in impaling the men and 
the horses that made it together on the points 
of the innumerable spears. 

To form a phalanx, and to maneuver it suc- 
cessfully, required a special training, both on 
the part of the officers and men, and in the 
Llacedonian armies the system was carried to 
very high perfection. When foreign auxil- 
iaries, however, served under Macedonian 



242 PYRRHUS. 

generals, they were not generally formed this 
way, but were allowed to fight under then* 
own leaders, and in the accustomed manner 
of their respective nations. The army of An- 
tigonus, accordingly, as he was retiring before 
Pyrrhus, consisted of two portions. Thj 
phalanx was in advance, and large bodies of 
Gauls, armed and arrayed in their usual man- 
ner, were in the rear. Of course, Pyrrhus, as 
he came up with his force in the ravine or 
valley, encountered the Gauls first. Their 
lines, it would seem, filled up the whole valley 
at the place where Pyrrhus overtook them, 
so that, at the outset of he contest, Pyrrhus 
had them only to engage. There was not 
space sufficient for the phalanx to come to 
their aid. 

Besides the phalanx and the bodies of 
Gauls, there was a troop of elephants in An- 
tigonus's army. Their position, as it would 
seem, was between the phalanx and the 
Gauls. This being the state of things, and 
Pyrrhus coming up to the attack in the rear, 
would, of course, encounter first the Gauls, 
then the elephants, and, lastly, the most for- 
midable of all, the phalanx itself. 

Pyrrhus advanced to the attack of the 
Gauls with the utmost fury, and, though they 



RECONQUEST OF MACEDON. 243 

made a very determined resistance, they were 
soon overpowered and almost all cut to pieces. 
The troop of elephants came next. The army 
of Pyrrhus, flushed with their victory over 
the Gauls, pressed eagerly on, and soon so 
surrounded the elephants and hemmed them 
in, that the keepers of them perceived that all 
hope of resistance was vain. They surrend- 
ered without an effort to defend themselves. 
The phalanx now remained. It had hastily 
changed its front, and it stood on the de- 
fensive. Pyitrhus advanced toward it with 
his forces, bringing his men up in array in 
front of the long lines of spears, and paused. 
The bristling monster remained immovable, 
evincing no disposition to advance against its 
enemy, but awaiting, apparently^ an attack. 
Pyrrhus rode out in front of his lines and 
surveyed the body of Macedonians before 
him. He found that he knew the officers per- 
sonally, having served with them before in 
the wars in which he had been engaged in 
Macedon in former years. He saluted them, 
calling them by name. They were pleased 
with being thus remembered and recognized 
by a personage so renowned. Pyrrhus urged 
them to abandon Antigonus, who had, as he 
maintained, no just title to the crown, and 

17— Pyrrhus 



244 PYRRHUS. 

whose usurped power he was aoout to over- 
throw, and invited them to enter into his 
service, as the ancient and rightful sovereign 
of their country. The officers seemed much 
disposed to listen to these overtures; in fine, 
they soon decided to accede to them. The 
phalanx went over to Pyrrhus's side in a 
body, and Antigonus, being thus deprived of 
his last remaining support, left the field in 
company with a few personal followers, and 
fled for his life. 

Of course, Pyrrhus found himself at once in 
complete possession of the Macedonian king- 
dom. Antigonus did not, indeed, entirely 
give up the contest. He retreated toward 
the coast, where he contrived to hold posses- 
sion, for a time, of a few maritime towns ; but 
his power as King of Macedon was gone. 
Some few of the interior cities attempted, for 
a time, to resist Pyrrhus's rule, but he soon 
overpowered them. Some of the cities that he 
thus conquered he garrisoned with Gauls. 

Of course, after such a revolution as this, a 
gieat deal was required to be done to settle 
the affairs of the government on their new 
footing, and to make the kingdom secure in 
the hands of the conqueror ; but no one in the 
least degree acquainted with the character 



RECONQUEST OF MACEDON. 245 

and tendencies of Pyrrhus's mind could ex- 
pect that he would be at all disposed to attend 
to these duties. He had neither the sagacity 
to plan nor the steadiness of purpose to exe- 
cute such measures. He could conquer, but 
that was all. To secure the results of his con- 
quests was utterly beyond his power. 

In fact, far from making such a use of his 
power as to strengthen his position, and es- 
tablish a permanent and settled government, 
he so administered the affairs of state, or, 
rather, he so neglected them, that very soon 
an extended discontent and disaffection be- 
gan to prevail. The Gauls, whom he had left 
as garrisons in the conquered cities, govern- 
ed them in so arbitrary a manner, and plun- 
dered them so recklessly, as to produce ex- 
treme irritation among the people. They com- 
plained earnestly to Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus paid 
little attention to their representations. To 
fight a battle with an open enemy on the field 
was always a pleasure to him ; but to meet and 
grapple with difficulties of this kind— to hear 
complaints, and listen to evidence, and dis- 
cuss and consider remedies, was all weariness 
and toil to him. 

What he would have done, and what would 
have been the end of his administration in 



246 



PYRRHUS. 



Macedon, had he been left to himself, can not 
now be known ; for, very fortunately, as he 
deemed it, he was suddenly relieved of all the 
emba/rrassment in which he was gradually 
getting involved, as he had often been relieved 
in similar circumstances before, by an invita- 




Greek Armor, 
tion which came to him just at this time to 
embark in a new military enterprise, which 
would draw him away from the country al- 
together. It is scarcely necessary to say that 
Pyrrhus accepted the invitation with the most 
eager alacrity. The circumstances of the case 
will be explained in the next chapter. 




CHAPTER XI. 



SPARTA. 



The war in which Pyrfhus was invited to 
engage, at the time referred to at the closii 
of the last chapter, arose out of a domestic 
quarrel in one of the royal families of Sparta. 
Sparta was one of the principal cities of the 
Peloponnesus, and the capital of a very 
powerful and warlike kingdom.* The insti- 
tutions of government in this commonwealth 
were very peculiar, and among the most ex- 
traordinary of them all was the arrangement 
made in respect to the kingly power. There 
were two dynasties, or lines of kings, reign- 
ing conjointly. The division of power be- 
tween the two incumbents whO' reigned at 
any one time may have been somewhat similai 
to that made in Rome between the consuls. 
But the system differed from that of the con- 
sular government in the fact that the SparLan 
kings were not elected magistrates, like the 
Roman consuls, but hereditary sovereigns, 
deriving their power from their ancestors, 
each in his own line. 

* For the situation of Sparta, see map. 

247 



248 PYRRHUS. 

The origin of this extraordinary system was 
said to be this : at a very early period of the 
Spartan history, a king died suddenly, leaving 
two children twins, as his heirs, but without 
designating either one of them as his succes- 
sor. The Spartans then applied to the mother 
of the two children to know which of them 
was the first-born. She pretended that she 
could not tell. They then applied to the ora- 
cle at Delphi, asking what they should do. 
The response of the oracle directed them to 
make both the children kings, but to bestow 
the highest honors upon the oldest. By this 
answer the Spartans were only partially re- 
lieved from their dilemma ; for, under the di- 
rections of the oracle, the necessity of deter- 
mining the question of priority in respect to 
the birth of the two children remained, with- 
out any light or guidance being afforded them 
in respect to the mode of doing it. 

At last some person suggested that a watcTi 
should be set over the mother, with a view to 
ascertain for which of her children she had the 
strongest affection. They supposed that :slie 
really knew which was the first-born, and 
that she would involuntarily give to the one 
whom she regarded in that light the prece- 
dence in the maternal services and duties 



SPARTA. 249 

which she rendered to the babes. This plan 
succeeded. It was discovered which was the 
first-born, and which was the younger; and 
the Spartans, accordingly, made both the 
children kings, but gave the highest rank to 
the former, as the oracle had directed. The 
children both lived, and grew up to be men, 
and in due time were married. By a singu- 
lar coincidence, they married twin-sisters. 
In the two families thus arising originated the 
Spartan lines of kings that reigned jointly 
over the kingdom for many successive gen- 
erations. To express this extraordinary sys- 
tem of government, it has sometimes been 
said that Sparta, though governed by kings, 
was not a monarchy, but a diarchy. 

The diarchy, however, as might have been 
expected, was found not to work very success- 
fully in practice. Various dissensions and 
difficulties arose; and at length, about two 
hundred years after the original establishment 
of the two lines, the kingdom became almost 
wholly disorganized. At this juncture the cel- 
ebrated lawgiver Lycurgus arose. He framed 
a system of laws and regulations for the king- 
dom, which were immediately put in force, 
and resulted not only in restoring the public 
affairs to order at the time, but were the 



2SO PYRRHUS. 

means, in the end, of raising Sparta to the 
highest condition of prosperity and renown. 

Lycurgus was indebted for his success in 
the measures which he adopted not merely to 
the sagacity which he exercised in framing 
them, and the energy with which he carried 
them into effect: he occupied personally a 
very peculiar position, which afforded him 
great facilities for the performance of his 
work. He was a member of one of the royal 
families, being a younger son of one of the 
kings. He had an elder brother named Poly- 
dectes. His father died suddenly, from a stab 
that "he received in a fray. He was not per- 
sonally engaged in the fray himself as one of 
the combatants, but only went into it to sep- 
arate other persons, who had by some means 
become involved in a sudden quarrel. In the 
struggle, he received a stab from a kitchen 
knife, with which one of the combatants was 
armed, and immediately died. 

Polydectes, of course, being the eldest son, 
succeeded to the throne. He, however, very 
soon died, leaving a wife, but no children. 
About eight months after his death, however, 
a child was born to his widow, and this child, 
according to the then received principles of 



SPARTA. 251 

hereditary descent, was entitled to succeed 
his father. 

As, however, at the time of Polydectes's 
death the child was not born, Lycurgus, the 
brother, was then apparently the heir. He 
accordingly assumed the government — so far 
as the government devolved upon the line tj 
which his brother had belonged— intending 
only to hold it in the interim, and to give it 
up ultimately when the proper heir should 
appear. In the mean time, the widow sup- 
posed very naturally that he would like to re- 
tain the power permanently. She was her- 
self also ambitious of reigning as queen ; and 
she accordingly made to Lycurgus the atro- 
cious and unnatural proposal to destroy the 
life of her child, on condition that he would 
marry her, and allow her to share the king- 
dom with him. Lycurgus was much shocked 
at receiving such a proposition, but he deemed 
it best, for the time being, to appear to accede 
to it. He accordingly represented to the 
queen that it would not be best for her to 
make the attempt which she had proposed, lest 
she should thereby endanger her own safety. 
"Wait," said he, ''and let me know as soon as 
the child is born; then leave every thing to 



252 PYRRHUS. 

me. I will do myself whatever is required to 
be done." 

Lycurgus, moreover, had attendants, pro- 
vided with orders to keep themselves in read- 
iness when the child should be born, and, if 
it proved to be a son, to bring the babe to 
him immediately, wherever he might be, or 
however he might be engaged. If it proved 
to be a daughter, they were to leave it in the 
hands of the woman who had charge of the 
queen. The babe proved to be a son. The of- 
ficers took it, accordingly, and brought it at 
once to Lycurgus. The unnatural mother, of 
course, understood that it was taken away 
from her to be destroyed, and she acquiesced 
in the supposed design, in order, by sacrific- 
ing her child, to perpetuate her own queenly 
dignity and power. Lycurgus, however, was 
intending to conduct the affair to a very dif- 
ferent result. 

At the time when the attendants brought 
the new-born babe to Lycurgus's house, Ly- 
curgus was engaged with a party of friends 
whom he had invited to a festival. These 
friends consisted of nobles, generals, minis- 
ters of state, and other principal personages 
of the Spartan commonwealth, whom Lycur- 
gus had thus assembled in anticipation, pro- 



SPARTA. 253 

bably, of what was to take place. The attend- 
ants had been ordered to bring the child to 
him without delay, wherever they might find 
him. They accordingly came into the apart- 
ment where Lycurgus and his friends were as- 
sembled, bringing the infant with them in 
cheir arms. Lycurgus received him, and hold- 
ing him up before the company, called out to 
them, in a loud voice, ''Spartans, I present to 
you your new-born king!" The people re- 
ceived the young prince with the most extrav- 
agant demonstrations of joy; and Lycurgus 
named him Charilaus, which means, ''Dear to 
the people.'' 

The conduct of Lycurgus on this occasion 
was thought to be very generous and noble, 
since by bringing the child forward as the 
true heir to the crown, he surrendered at once 
all his own pretensions to the inheritance, and 
made himself a private citizen. Very few of 
the sons of kings, either in ancient or modern 
times, would have pursued such a course. 
But, though in respect to his position, he 
abased himself by thus descending from his 
place upon the throne to the rank of a private 
citizen, he exalted himself very highly in re- 
spect to influence and character. He was at 
once made protector of the person of the child 



^54 PYRRHUS. 

and regent of the realm during the young 
king's minority; and all the people of the 
city, applauding the noble deed which he had 
performed, began to entertain toward him feel- 
ings of the highest respect and veneration. 

It proved, however, that there were yet very 
serious difficulties, which he was destined to 
meet and surmount before the way should be 
fully open for the performance of the great 
work for which he afterward became so re- 
nowned. Although the people generally of 
Sparta greatly applauded the conduct of Ly- 
curgus, and placed the utmost confidence in 
him, there were still a few who hated and op- 
posed him. Of course, the queen herself, 
whose designs he had thwarted, was extreme- 
ly indignant at having been thus deceived. 
Not only was her own personal ambition dis- 
appointed by the failure of her design, but her 
womanly pride was fatally wounded in hav- 
ing been rejected by Lycurgus in the ofifer 
which she had made to become his wife. She 
and her friends, therefore, were implacably 
hostile to him. She had a brother, named Le- 
onidas, who warmly espoused her cause. Le- 
onidas quarreled openly with Lycurgus. He 
addressed him one day, in the presence of sev- 
eral witnesses, in a very violent and threaten- 



SPARTA. 255 

ing manner. '1 know very well," said he, 
*'that your seeming disinterestedness, and your 
show of zeal for the safety and welfare of the 
young king, are all an empty pretense. You 
are plotting to destroy him, and to raise your- 
self to the throne in his stead; and if we wait 
a short time, we shall see you accomplishing 
the results at which you are really aiming, in 
your iniquitous and hypocritical policy. 

On hearing these threats and denunciations, 
Lycurgus, instead of making an angry reply 
to them, began at once calmly to consider what 
it would be best for him to do. He reflected 
that the life of the child was uncertain, not- 
withstanding every precaution which he might 
make for the preservation of it ; and if by any 
casuality it should die, his enemies might 
charge him with having secretly murdered it. 
He resolved, therefore, to remove at once and 
forever all possible suspicion, present or pros- 
pective, of the purity of his motives, by with- 
drawing altogether from Sparta until the child 
should come of age. He accordingly made ar- 
rangements for placing the young king under 
protectors who could not be suspected of col- 
lusion with him for any guilty purpose, and 
also organized an administration to govern 
the country until the king should be of age. 



256 PYRRHUS. 

Having taken these steps, he bade Sparta fare- 
well, and set out upon a long and extended 
course of travels. 

He was gone from his native land many 
years, during which period he visited all the 
principal states and kingdoms of the earth, 
employing himself, wherever he went, in 
studying the history, the government, and the 
institutions of the countries through which he 
journeyed and in visiting and conversing with 
all the most distinguished men. He went first 
to Crete, a large island which lay south of 
the ^gean Sea, its western extremity being 
not far from the coast of Peloponnesus. After 
remaining for some time in Crete, visiting all 
its principal cities, and making himself thor- 
oughly acquainted with its history and con- 
dition, he sailed for Asia Minor, and visited 
all the chief capitals there. From Asia Minor 
he went to Egypt, and, after finishing his ob- 
servations and studies in the cities of the Nile, 
he journeyed westward, and passed through 
all the countries lying on the northern coast 
of Africa, and then from Africa he crossed 
over into Spain. He remained long enough in 
each place that he visited to make himself 
very thoroughly acquainted with its philos- 
ophy, its government, its civilization, its state 



SPARTA, 257 

of progress in respect to the arts and usages 
of social life — with every thing, in fact, which 
could have a bearing upon national prosperity 
and welfare. 

In the mean time, the current of affairs at 
Sparta flowed by no means smoothly. As 
years rolled on, and the yoiung prince, Charil- 
aus, advanced toward the period of manhood, 
he became involved in various difficulties, 
which greatly embarrassed and perplexed him. 
He was of a very amiable and gentle dispos- 
ition, but was wholly destitute of the strength 
and energy of character required for the sta- 
tion in which he was placed. Disagreements 
arose between him and the other king. They 
both quarreled, too, with their nobles and 
with the people. The people did not respect 
them, and gradually learned to despise their 
authority. They remembered the efficiency 
and the success of Lycurgus's government, 
and the regularity and order which had 
marked the whole course of public affairs dur- 
ing his administration. They appreciated 
now, too, more fully than before, the noble 
personal qualities which Lycurgus had evinced 
— his comprehensiveness of view, his firmness 
of purpose, his disinterestedness, his generos- 
ity; and they contrasted the lofty sentiments 

18— Pyrrhus 



258 PYRRHUS. 

and principles which had always governed 
him with the weakness, the childishness, and 
the petty ambition of their actual kings. In a 
word, they all wished that Lycurgus would re- 
turn. 

Even the kings themselves participated in 
this wish. They perceived that their affairs 
were getting into confusion, and began to feel 
apprehension and anxiety. Lycurgus received 
repeated messages from them and from the 
people of Sparta, urging him to return, but he 
declined to accept these proposals, and went 
on with his travels and his studies as before. 

At last, however, the Spartans sent a formal 
embassy to Lycurgus, representing to him the 
troubled condition of public affairs in Sparta, 
and the dangers which threatened the com- 
monwealth, and urging him in the most press- 
ing manner to return. These embassadors, in 
their interview with Lycurgus, told him that 
they had kings, indeed, at Sparta, so far as 
birth, and title, and the wearing of royal robes 
would go, but as for any royal qualities be- 
yond this mere outside show, they had seen 
nothing of the kind since Lycurgus had left 
them. 

Lycurgus finally concluded to comply with 
the request. He returned to Sparta. Here he 



SPARTA. 259 

employed himself for a time in making a care- 
ful examination into the state of the country, 
and in conversing with the principal men of 
influence in the city, and renewing his ac- 
quaintance with them. At length he formed a 
plan for an entire organization of the govern- 
ment. He proposed this plan to the principal 
men, and, having obtained the consent of a 
sufficient number of them to the leading pro- 
visions of his new constitution, he began to 
take measures for the public promulgation 
and establishment of it. 

The first step was to secure a religious sanc- 
tion for 'his proceedings, in order to inspire 
the common people with a feeling of rever- 
ence and awe for his authority. He accord- 
ingly left Sparta, saying that he was going to 
consult the oracle at Delphi. In due time he 
returned, bringing with him the response of 
the oracle. The response was as follows : 

''Lycurgus is beloved of the gods, and is 
himself divine. The laws which he has framed 
are perfect, and under them a commonwealth 
shall arise which shall hereafter become the 
most famous in the world." 

This response, having been made known in 
Sparta, impressed every one with a very high 
sense of the authority of Lycurgus, and dis- 



2*80 PYRRHUS. 

posed all classes of people to acquiesce in the 
comiilg change. Lycurgus did not, however, 
rely entirely on this disposition. When the 
time came for organizing the new government, 
he stationed an armed force in the market- 
place one morning at a very early hour, so 
that the people, when they came forth, as usu- 
al, into the streets, found that Lycurgus had 
taken military possession of the city. The first 
feeling was a general excitement and alarm. 
Charilaus, the kixig, who, it seems, had not 
been consulted in these movements at all, was 
very much terrified. He supposed that an in- 
surrection had taken place against his author- 
ity, and that his life was in danger. To save 
himself, he fled to one of the temples as to a 
sanctuary. Lycurgus sent to him, informing 
him that those engaged in the revolution 
which had taken place intended no injury to 
him, either in respect to his person or his roy- 
al prerogatives. By these assurances the fears 
of Charilaus were allayed, and thenceforth he 
co-operated with Lycurgus in carrying his 
measures into efifect. 

This is not the place for a full account of 
the plan of government which Lycurgus intro- 
duced, nor of the institutions which gradually 
grew up under it. It is sufficient to say that 



SPARfA. 261 

the system which he adopted was celebrated 
throughout the world during the period of its 
continuance, and has since been celebrated in 
every age, as being the most stern and rugged 
social system that was ever framed. The com- 
monwealth of Sparta became, under the in- 
stitutions of Lycurgus, one great camp. The 
nation was a nation of soldiers. Every pos 
sible device was resorted to to inure all classes 
of the population, the young and the old, the 
men and the women, the rich and the poor, to 
every species of hardship and privation. The 
only qualities that were respected or cultivated 
were such stern virtues as courage, fortitude, 
endurance, insensibility to pain and grief, and 
contempt for all the pleasures of wealth and 
luxury. Lycurgus did not write out his sys- 
tem. He would not allow it to be written out. 
He preferred to put it in operation, and then 
leave it to perpetuate itself, as a matter of us- 
age and precedent. Accordingly, after fully 
organizing the government on the plan which 
he had arranged, and announcing the laws, 
and establishing the customs by which he in- 
tended that the ordinary course of social lifj 
should be regulated, he determined to with- 
draw from the field and await the result. He 
therefore informed the people that he was go- 



262 PYRRHUS, 

ing away again on another journey, and that 
he would leave the carrying forward of the 
government which he had framed for them 
and initiated in their hands; and he required 
of them a solemn oath that they would make 
no change in the system until he returned. In 
doing this, his secret intention was never to 
return. 

Such was the origin, and such the general 
character of the Spartan government. In the 
time of Pyrrhus, the system had been in oper- 
ation for about five hundred years. During 
this period the state passed through many and 
various vicissitudes. It engaged in wars, of- 
fensive and defensive ; it passed through many 
calamitous and trying scenes, suffering, from 
time to time, under the usual ills which, in 
those days, so often disturbed the peace and 
welfare of nations. But during all this time, 
the commonwealth retained in a very striking 
degree, the extraordinary marks and charac- 
teristics which the institutions of Lycurgus 
had enstamped upon it. The Spartans still were 
terrible in the estimation of all mankind, so 
stern and indomitable was the spirit which 
they manifested in all the enterprises in which 
they engaged. 

It was from Sparta that the message came 
to Pyrrhus asking his assistance in a war that 



SPARTA. 263 

was then waging there. The war originated 
in a domestic quarrel which arose in the fam- 
ily of one of the lines of kings. The name of 
the prince who made application to Pyrrhus 
was Cleonymus. He was a younger son of 
one of the Spartan kings. He had 'had an 
older brother named Acrotatus. The crown, 
of course, would have devolved on this broth- 
er, if he had been living when the father died. 
But he was not. He died before his father, 
leaving a son, however, named Areus, as his 
heir. Areus, of course, claimed the throne 
when his grandfather died. He was not young 
himself at this time. He had advanced beyond 
the period of middle life, and had a son who 
had grown up to maturity. 

Cleonymus was very unwilling to acquiesce 
in the accession of Areus to the throne. He 
was himself the son of the king who had died, 
while Areus was only the grandson. He 
maintained, therefore, that he had the highest 
claim to the succession. He was, however, 
overruled, and Areus assumed the crown. 

Soon after his accession, Areus left Sparta 
and went to Crete, intrusting the government 
of his kingdom, in the mean time, to his son. 
The name of this son was Acrotatus. Cleony- 
mus, of course, looked with a particularly evil 



264 PYRRHUS. 

eye upon this young man, and soon began to 
form designs against him. At length, after 
the lapse of a considerable period, during 
which various events occurred which can not 
be here described, a circumstance took place 
which excited the hostility which Cleonymus 
felt for Acrotatus to the highest degree. The 
circumstances were these: 

Cleonymus, though far advanced in life, 
married, about the time that the events oc- 
curred which we are here describing, a very 
young lady named Chelidonis. Chelidonis was 
a princess of the royal line, and was a lady of 
great personal beauty. She, however, had very 
little affection for her husband, and at length 
Acrotatus, who was young and attractive in 
person, succeeded in winning her love, and en- 
ticing her away from her husband. This af- 
fair excited the mind of Cleonymus to a perfect 
phrensy of jealousy and rage. He immediate- 
ly left Sparta, and, knowing well the character 
and disposition of Pyrrhus, he proceeded 
northward to Macedon, laid his case before 
Pyrrhus, and urged him to fit out an expedi- 
tion and march to the Peloponnesus, with a 
view of aiding him to put down the usurpers, 
as he called them, and to establish him on the 
throne of Sparta instead. Pyrrhus immedi- 



SPARTA. 



265 



ately saw that the conjuncture opened before 
him a prospect of a very brilliant campaign, m 
a field entirely new, and he at once determined 
to embark forthwith in the enterprise. He re- 
solved, accordingly, to abandon his interests 
in Macedon and march into Greece. 





CHAPTER Xn. 

THE LAST CAMPAIGN OF PYRRHUS. 

Immediately on receiving t'he invitation of 
Cleonymus, Pyrrhus commenced making pre- 
parations on a very extensive scale for the in- 
tended campaign. He gathered all the troops 
that he could command, both from Macedon 
and Epirus. He levied taxes and contribu- 
tions, provided military stores of every kind, 
and entered into all the other arrangements 
required for such an enterprise. These prelim- 
inary operations required a considerable 
time, so that he was not ready to commence 
his march until the follov^ing year. When all 
v^as ready, he found that his force consisted of 
twenty-five thousand foot, two thousand 
horse, and a troop of twenty-four elephants. 
He had two sons, neither of whom, it would 
seem, was old enough to be intrusted with the 
command, either in Macedon or Epirus, dur- 
ing his absence, and he accordingly deter- 
mined to take them with him. Their names 
266 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 267 

were Ptolemy and Helenus. Pyrrhus himself 
at this time was about forty-five years of age. 

Although in this expedition Cleonymus 
supposed that Pyrrhus was going into Greece 
only as his ally, and that the sole object of the 
war was to depose Areus and place Cleonymus 
on the throne in his stead, Pyrrhus himself 
entertained far different designs. His inten- 
tion was, while invading the country in 
Cleonymus's name, to overrun and conquer it 
all, with a view of adding it to his own domin- 
ions. Of course, he gave no intimation to 
Cleonymus that he entertained any such de- 
signs. 

The approach of Pyrrhus naturally produced 
great excitement and commotion in Sparta. 
His fame as a military commander was known 
throughout the world; and the invasion of 
their country by such a conqueror, at the head 
of so large a force, was calculated to awaken 
great alarm among the people. The Spartans, 
however, were not much accustomed to be 
alarmed. They immediately began to make 
preparations to defend themselves. They sent 
forward an embassage to meet Pyrrhus on 
the way, and demand wherefore he was com- 
ing. Pyrrhus rnade evasive and dishonest re- 
plies. He was not intending, he said, to com- 



268 PYRRHUS. 

mit any hostilities against Sparta. His busi- 
ness was with certain other cities of the Pelo- 
ponnesus, which had been for some time under 
a foreign yoke, and which he was now coming 
to free. The Spartans were not deceived by 
these protestations, but time was gained, and 
this was Pyrrhus's design. 

His army continued to advance, and in its 
progress began to seize and plunder towns be- 
longing to the Spartan territory. The Spar- 
tans sent embassadors again, demanding what . 
these proceedings meant. The embassadors 
charged it upon Pyrrhus, that, contrary to the 
laws and usages of nations, he was making 
war upon them without having previously de- 
clared war. 

''And do you Spartans,'' said Pyrrhus, in re- 
ply, ''always tell the world whatevei you are 
going to do before you do it?" Such a 
rejoinder was virtually acknowledging that 
the object of the expedition was an attack on 
Sparta itself. The embassadors so understood 
it, and bid the invader defiance. 

''Let there be war, then," said they, "if you 
will have it so. We do not fear you, whether 
you are a god or a man. If you are a god, you 
will not be disposed to do us any injury, for 
we have never injured you. If you are a man. 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 269 

you can not harm us, for we can produce men 
in Sparta able to meet any other man what- 
ever." 

The embassadors then returned to Sparta, 
and the people immediately pushed forward 
with all diligence their preparations for put- 
ting the city in an attitude of defense. 

Pyrrhus continued his march, and at length, 
toward evening, approached the walls of the 
city. Cleonymus, who knew well what sort of 
enemies they had to deal with, urgently rec- 
ommended that an assault should be made 
that night, supposing that the Spartans would 
succeed in making additional defenses if the at- 
tack were postponed until the morning. Pyr- 
rhus, however, was disposed not to make the 
attack until the following day. He felt per- 
fectly sure of his prize, and was, according- 
ly, in no haste to seize it. He thought, it was 
said, that if the attack were made in the night, 
the soldiers would plunder the city, and thus 
he should lose a considerable part of the booty 
which he hoped otherwise to secure for him- 
self. He could control them better in the day- 
time. He accordingly determined to remain 
in his camp, without the city, during the night, 
and to advance to the assault in the morning. 



270 PYRRHUS. 

So he ordered the tents to be pitched on the 
plain, and sat quietly down. 

In the mean time, great activity prevailed, 
within the walls. The senate was convened, 
and was engaged in debating and deciding the 
various questions that necessarily arise in such 
an emergency. A plan was proposed for re- 
moving the women from the city, in order to 
save them from the terrible fate which would 
inevitably await them, should the army of Pyr- 
rhus be successful on the following day. It 
was thought that they might go out secretly 
on the side opposite to that on which Pyrrhus 
was encamped, and thence be conducted to the 
seashore, where they might be conveyed in 
ships and galleys to the island of Crete, which, 
as will appear from the map, was situated at 
no great distance from the Spartan coast. By 
this means the mothers and daughters, it was 
thought, would be saved, whatever might be 
the fate of the husbands and brothers. The 
news that the senate were discussing such a 
plan as this was soon spread abroad among 
the people. The women were aroused to the 
most strenuous opposition against this plan. 
They declared that they never would seek 
safety for themiselves by going away, and 
leaving their fathers, husbands, and brothers 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 27I 

in such danger. They commissioned one of 
their number, a princess named Archidamia, 
to make known to the senate the views which 
they entertained of this proposal. Archida- 
mia went boldly into the senate-chamber, with 
a drawn sword in her hand, and there arrest- 
ed the discussion in which the senators were 
engaged by demanding how they could enter- 
tain such an opinion of the women of Sparta 
as to suppose that they could survive the de- 
struction of the city and the death of all whom 
they loved. They did not wish to be saved, 
they said, unless all could be saved together; 
and she implored the senate to abandon at 
once all ideas of sending them away, and al- 
low them, instead, to take their share in the 
necessary labors required for the defense of 
the city. The senate yielded to this appeal, 
and, abandoning the design which they had 
entertained of sending the women away, 
turned their attention immediately to plans of 
defense. 

While these earnest consultations and dis- 
cussions were going on in the senate, and in 
the streets and dwellings of the city, there was 
one place which presented a scene of excite- 
ment of a very different kind — namely, the 
palace of Cleonymus. There all were in a 



2y2 PYRRHUS. 

state of eager anticipation, expecting the 
speedy arrival of their master. The domes- 
tics believed confidently that an attack would 
be made upon the city that night by the com- 
bined army of Cleonymus and Pyrrhus ; and 
presuming that it would be successful, they 
supposed that their master, as soon as the 
troops should obtain possession of the city, 
would coime home at once to his own house, 
bringing his distinguished ally with him. They 
busied themselves, therefore, in adorning and 
preparing the apartments of the house, and 
in making ready a splendid entertainment, in 
order that they might give to Cleonymus and 
his friend a suitable reception when they 
should arrive. 

Chelidonis, however, the young and beauti- 
ful, but faithless wife of Cleonymus, was not 
there. She had long since left her husband's 
dwelling, and now she was full of suspense 
and anxiety in respect to his threatened re- 
turn. If the city should be taken, she knew 
very well that she must necessarily fall again 
into her husband's power, and she determined 
that she never would fall into his power again 
alive. So she retired to her apartment, and 
there putting a rope around her neck, and 
making all other necessary preparations, she 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 273 

awaited the issue of the battle, resolved to de- 
stroy herself the moment she should hear tid- 
ings that Pyrrhus had gained the victory. 

In the meantime, the miUtary leaders of the 
Spartans were engaged in strengthening the 
defenses, and in making all the necessary pre- 
parations for the ensuing conflict. They did 
not, however, intend to remain within the city, 
and await the attack of the assailants there. 
With the characteristic fearlessness of the 
Spartan character, they determined, when 
they found that Pyrrhus was not intending to 
attack the city that night, that they would 
themselves go out to meet him in the morn- 
ing. 

One reason, however, for this determination 
doubtless was, that the city was not shut in 
with substantial walls and defenses, like 
most of the other cities of Greece, as it was a 
matter of pride with the Spartans to rely on 
their own personal strength and courage foi 
protection, rather than on artificial bulwarks 
and towers. Still, such artificial aids were not 
wholly despised, and they now determined to 
do what was in their power in this respect, by 
throwing up a rampart of earth, under cover of 
the darkness of the night, along the line over 
which the enemy must march in attacking the 

19 Pyrrhus 



274 PYRRHUS. 

city. This work was accordingly begun. They 
would not, however, employ the soldiers in 
the work, or any strong and able-bodied men 
capable of bearing arms. They wished to re~ 
serve the strength of all these for the more 
urgent and dreadful work of the following 
day. The ditch was accordingly dug, and the 
ram'parts raised by the boys, the old men, and 
especially by the women. The women of all 
ranks in the city went out and toiled all night 
at this labor, having laid aside half their 
clothes, that their robes might not hinder 
them in the digging. The reader, however, 
must not, in his imaginatioin, invest these fair 
laborers with the delicate forms, and gentle 
manners, and timid hearts which are gener- 
ally deemed characteristic of women, for the 
Spartan females were trained expressly, from 
their earliest life, to the most rough and bold 
exposures and toils. They were inured from 
infancy to hardihood, by being taught to con- 
tend in public wrestlings and games, to en- 
dure every species of fatigue and exposure, 
and to despise every thing like gentleness and 
delicacy. In a word, they were little less mas- 
culine in appearance and manners than the 
men ; and accordingly, when Archidamia 
went into the senate-chamber with a drawn 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 275 

sword in her hand, and there, boldly facing 
the whole assembly, declared that the women 
would on no account consent to leave the 
city, she acted in a manner not at all incon- 
sistent with what at Sparta was considered 
the proper position and character of 'her sex. 
In a word, the Spartan women were as bold 
and stern, and almost as formidable, as the 
men. 

All night long the work of excavation went 
on. Those who were too young or too feeble 
to work were employed in going to and fro, 
carrying tools where they were required, or 
bringing food and drink to those who were 
digging in the trench, while the soldiers re- 
mained quietly at rest within the city, await- 
ing the duties which were to devolve upon 
them in the morning. The trench was made 
wide and deep enough to impede the passage 
of the elephants and of the cavalry, and it was 
guarded at the ends by wagons, the wheels of 
which were half buried in the ground at the 
places chosen for them, in order to render 
them immovable. All this work was per- 
formed in such silence and secrecy that it met 
with no interruption from Pyrrhus's camp, 
and the whole was completed before the morn- 
ing dawned. 



^76 PYRRHUS. 

As soon as it began to be light, the camp 
of Pyrrhus was in motion. All was excite- 
ment and commotion, too, within the city. 
The soldiers assumed their arms and formed 
in array. The women gathered around them 
while they were making these preparations, 
assisting them to buckle on their armor, and 
animating them with words of sympathy and 
encouragement. ''How glorious it will be for 
you," said they, ''to gain a victory here in thp, 
precincts of the city, where we can all witness 
and enjoy your triumph; and even if you fall 
in the contest, your mothers and your wives 
are close at hand to receive you to their arms, 
and to soothe and sustain you in your dying 
struggles !" 

When all was ready, the men marched forth 
to meet the advancing columns of Pyrrhus's 
army, and the battle soon began. Pyrrhus 
soon found that the trench which the Spar- 
tans had dug in the night was destined greatly 
to obstruct his intended operations. The horse 
and the elephants could not cross it at all ; and 
even the men, if they succeeded in getting 
over the ditch, were driven back when at- 
tempting to ascend the rampart of earth which 
had been formed along the side of it, by the 
earth thrown up in making the excavation, 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 27^ 

for this earth was loose and steep, and afford- 
ed them no footing. Various attempts were 
made to dislodge the wagons that had been 
fixed into the ground at the ends of the 
trench, but for a time all these efforts were 
fruitless. At last, however, Ptolemy, the son 
of Pyrrhus, came very near succeeding. He 
had the command of a force of about two 
thousand Gauls, and with this body he made 
a circuit, so as to com^e upon the line of wag- 
ons in such a m_anner as to give him a great 
advantage in attacking them. The Spartans 
fought very resolutely in defense of them ; 
but the Gauls gradually prevailed, and at 
length succeeded in dragging several of the 
wagons up out of the earth. All that they 
thus extricated they drew off out of the way, 
and threw them into the river. 

Seeing this, young Acrotatus, the prince 
whom Areus his father, now absent, as the 
reader will recollect, in Crete, had left in com- 
mand in Sparta when he went away, hastened 
to interpose. He placed himself at the head 
of a small band of two or three hundred men, 
and, crossing the city on the other side, he 
went unobserved, and then, making a circuit, 
came round and attacked the Gauls, who were 
at work on the wagons in the rear. As the 



278 PYRRHUS. 

Gauls had already a foe in front nearly strong 
enough to cope with them, this sudden assault 
from behind entirely turned the scale. They 
were driven away in great confusion. This 
feat being accomplished, Acrotatus came back 
at the head of his detachment into the city, 
panting and exhausted with the exertions he 
had made, and covered with blood. He was 
received there with the loudest applause and 
acclamations. The women gathered around 
him, and overwhelmed him with thanks and 
congratulations. ^^Go to Chelidonis,'' said 
they, "and rest. She ought to be yours. You 
have deserved her. How we envy her such a 
lover!" 

The contest continued all the day, and 
when night came on Pyrrhus found that he 
had made no sensible progress in the work 
of gaining entrance into the city. He was, 
however, now forced to postpone all further 
efforts till the following day. At the proper 
time he retired to rest, but he awoke very 
early in the morning in a state of great ex- 
citement ; and, calling up some of the officers 
around him, he related to them a remarkable 
dream which he had had during the night, 
and which, he thought, presaged success to 
the efforts which they were to make on the 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 279 

following day. He had seen, he said, in his 
dream, a flash of lightning dart from the sky 
upon Sparta, and set the whole city on fire. 
This, he argued, was a divine omen which 
promised them certain success; and he called 
upon the generals to marshal the troops and 
prepare for the onset, saying, "We are sure 
of victory now.'' 

Whether Pyrrhus really had had such a 
dream, or whether he fabricated the story for 
the purpose of inspiring anew the courage 
and confidence of his men, which, as would 
naturally be supposed, might have been some- 
what weakened by the ill success of the pre- 
ceding day, can not be absolutely ascertained. 
Whichever it was, it failed wholly of its in- 
tended effect. Pyrrhus's generals said, in re- 
ply, that the omen was adverse, and not pro- 
pitious, for it was one of the fundamental 
principles of haruspicial science that light- 
ning made sacred whatever it touched. It 
was forbidden even to step upon the ground 
where a thunder-bolt had fallen ; and they 
ought to consider, therefore, that the descent 
of the lightning upon Sparta, as figured to 
Pyrrhus in the dream, was intended to mark 
the city as under the special protection of 
heaven, and to warn the invaders not to mo- 



280 PYRRHUS. 

lest it. Finding thus that the story of his 
vision produced a different effect from the 
one he had intended, Pyrrhus changed his 
ground, and told his generals that no import- 
ance whatever was to be attached to visions 
atid dreams. They might serve, he argued, 
very well to amuse the ignorant and supersti- 
tious, but wise men should be entirely above 
being influenced by them in any way. "You 
have something better than these things to 
trust in,'* said he. You have arms in your 
hands, and you have Pyrrhus for your leaden 
This is proof enough for you that you are des- 
tined to conquer.'' 

How far these assurances were found effect- 
ual in animating the courage of the generals 
we do not know; but the result did not at all 
confirm Pyrrhus's vain-glorious predictions. 
During the first part of the day, indeed, he 
made great progress, and for a time it ap- 
peared probable that the city was about to fall 
into his hands. The plan of his operations 
was first to fill. up the ditch which the Spar- 
tans had made; the soldiers throwing into it 
for this purpose great quantities of materials 
of every kind, such as earth, stones, fagots, 
trunks of trees, and whatever came most read- 
ily to hand. They used in this work immense 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 281 

quantities of dead bodies, which they found 
scattered over the plain, the results of the con- 
flict of the preceding day. By means of the 
horrid bridging thus made, the troops at- 
tempted to make their way across the ditch, 
while the Spartans, formed on the top of the 
rampart of earth on the inner side of it, 
fought desperately to repel them. All this 
time the women were passing back and forth 
between them and the city, bringing out water 
and refreshments to sustain the fainting 
strength of the men, and carrying home the 
wounded and dying, and the bodies of the 
dead. 

At last a considerable body of troops, con- 
sisting of a division that was under the per- 
sonal charge of Pyrrhus himself, succeeded in 
breaking through the Spartan lines, at a point 
near one end of the rampart which had been 
thrown up. When the men found that they 
had forced their way through, they raised 
loud shouts of exultation and triumph, and 
immediately rushed forward toward the city. 
For a moment it seemed that for the Spartans 
all was lost; but the tide of victory was soon 
suddenly turned by a very unexpected inci- 
dent. An arrow pierced the breast of the 
horse on which Pyrrhus was riding, and gave 



282 PYRRHUS. 

the animal a fatal wound. The horse plunged 
and reared in his agony and terror, and then 
fell, throwing Pyrrhus to the ground. This 
occurrence, of course, arrested the whole 
troop in their progress. The horsemen 
wheeled suddenly about, and gathered around 
Pyrrhus to rescue him from his danger. This 
gave the Spartans time to rally, and to bring 
up their forces in such numbers that the Ma- 
cedonian soldiers were glad to be able to make 
their way back again, bearing Pyrrhus with 
them beyond th^ lines. After recovering a 
little from the agitation produced by this ad- 
venture, Pyrrhus found that his troops, dis- 
couraged, apparently, by the fruitlessness of 
their efforts, and especially by this last mis- 
fortune, were beginning to lose their spirit 
and ardor, and were fighting feebly and fal- 
teringly, all along the line. He concluded 
therefore, that there was no longer any pros- 
pect of accomplishing his object that day, 
and that it would be better to save the remain- 
ing strength of his troops by withdrawing 
them from the field, rather than to discourage 
and enfeeble them still more by continuing 
what was now very clearly a useless struggle. 
Pie accordingly put a stop to the action, and 
the army retired to their encampment. 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 



283 



Before he had opportunity to make a third 
attempt, events occurred which entirely 
changed the whole aspect of the controversy. 
The reader will recollect that Areus, the 




Th£ Cbabge. 

king of Sparta, was absent in Crete at the 
time of Pyrrhus's arrival, and that the com- 
mand of the army devolved, during his ab- 
sence, on Acrotatus, his son ; for the kings of 
the other line, for some reason or other, took 
a very small part in the public affairs of the 
city at this time, and are seldom mentioned in 
history. Areus, as soon as he heard of the 
Macedonian invasion, immediately collected 
a large force and set out on his return to 



284 PYRRHUS. 

Sparta, and he entered into the city at the 
head of two thousand men just after the sec- 
ond repulse which Aerotatus had given to 
their enemies. At the same time, too, an 
other body of re-enforcements came in from 
Corinth, consisting of the alHes of the Spartans, 
gathered from the northern part of the Pelo- 
ponnesus. The arrival of these troops in the 
city filled the Spartans with joy, and entirely 
dispelled their fears. They considered them- 
selves as now entirely safe. The old men and 
th women, considering that their places were 
now abundantly supplied, thenceforth with- 
drew from all active participation in the con- 
test, and retired to their respective homes, to 
rest and refresh themselves after their toils. 

Notwithstanding this however, Pyrrhus 
was not yet prepared to give up the contest. 
The immediate effect, in fact, of the arrival of 
the re-enforcements was to arouse his spirit 
anew, and to stimulate him to a fresh deter- 
mination that he would not be defeated in his 
purpose, but that he would conquer the city 
at all hazards. He accordingly made several 
more desperate attempts, but they were whol- 
ly unsuccessful ; and at length, after a series 
of losses and defeats, he was obliged to give 
up the contest and withdraw. He retired, ac- 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 285 

cordingly, to some little distance from Sparta, 
where he established a permanent camp, sub- 
sisting his soldiers by plundering the sur- 
rounding country. He was vexed and irritat- 
ed by the mortification's and disappointments 
which he had endured, and waited impatient- 
ly for an opportunity to seek revenge. 

While he was thus pondering his situation, 
uncertain what to do next, he received one 
day a message from Argos, a city in the 
northern part of the Peloponnesus, asking 
him to come and take part in a contest which 
had been opened there. It seems that a civil 
war had broken out in that city, and one of 
the leaders, knowing the character of Pyrrhus, 
and his readiness to engage in any quarrel 
which was offered to him, had concluded to 
apply for his aid. Pyrrhus was, as usual, very 
ready to yield to this request. It afforded him, 
as similar proposals had so often done before, 
a plausible excuse for abandoning an enter- 
prise in which he began to despair of being 
able to succeed. He immediately commenced 
his march to the northward. The Spartans, 
however, were by no means disposed to allow 
him to go off unmolested. They advanced 
with all the force they could command, and, 
though they were not powerful enough to en- 



286 PYRRHUS. 

gage him in a general battle, tihey harassed 
him and embarrassed his march in a very 
vexatious manner. They laid ambushes in the 
narrow defiles through which he had to pass; 
they cut off his detachments, and plundered 
and destroyed his baggage. Pyrrhus at length 
sent back a body of his guards under Ptolemy, 
his son, to drive them away. Ptolemy attack- 
ed the Spartans and fought them with great 
bravery, until at length, in the heat of the con- 
test, a celebrated Cretan, of remarkable 
strength and activity, riding furiously up to 
Ptolemy, felled him to the ground, and killed 
him at a single blow. On seeing him fall, his 
detachment were struck with dismay, and, 
turning their backs on the Spartans, fled to 
Pyrrhus with the tidings. 

Pyrrhus was, of course, excited to the high- 
est pitch of phrensy at hearing what had oc- 
curred. He immediately placed himself at the 
head of a troop of horse, and galloped back 
to attack the Spartans and avenge the death 
of his son. He assaulted his enemies, when 
he reached the ground where they were post- 
ed, in the most furious manner, and killed 
great numbers of them in the conflict that en- 
sued. At one time, he was for a short period 
in the most imminent danger. A Spartan, 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 287 

named Evalcus, who came up and engaged 
him hand to hand, aimed a blow at his head, 
which, although it failed of its intended effect, 
came down close in front of his body, as he 
sat upon his horse, and cut off the reins of the 
bridle. The instant after, Pyrrhus transfixed 
Evalcus with his spear. Of course, Pyrrhus 
had now no longer the control of his horse, 
and he accordingly leaped from him to the 
ground and fought on foot, while the Spar- 
tans gathered around, endeavoring to rescue 
and protect the body of Evalcus. A furious 
and most terrible contest ensued, in whicn 
many on both sides were slain. At length 
Pyrrhus made good his retreat from the scene, 
and the Spartans themselves finally withdrew. 
Pyrrhus having thus, by way of comfort for 
his grief, taken the satisfaction of revenge, 
resumed his march and went to Argos. 

Arrived before the city, he found that there 
was an army opposed to him there, under the 
command of a general named Antigonus. His 
army was encamped upon a hill near the city, 
awaiting his arrival. The mind of Pyrrhus 
had become so chafed and irritated by the op- 
position which he had encountered, and the 
defeats, disappointments, and mortifications 
which he had endured, that he \Yas full of 

20— Pyrrhua 



288 PYRRHUS. 

rage and fury, and seemed to manifest the 
temper of a wild beast rather than that of a 
man. He sent a herald to the camp of Antig- 
onus, angrily defying him, and challenging 
him to come down from his encampment and 
meet him in single combat on the plain. Antig- 
onus very cooly replied that time was a wea- 
pon which he employed in his contests as well 
as the sword, and that he was not yet ready 
for battle; adding, that if Pyrrhus was weary 
of his life, and very impatient to end it, there 
were plenty of modes by which he could ac- 
complish his desire. 

Pyrrhus remained for some days before the 
walls of Argos, during which time various ne- 
gotiations took place between the people of 
the city and the several parties involved in the 
quarrel, with a view to an amicable adjust- 
ment of the dispute, in order to save the city 
from the terrors attendant upon a contest for 
the possession of it between such mighty ar- 
mies. At length some sort of settlement was 
made, and both armies agreed to retire. Pyr- 
rhus, however, had no intention of keeping 
his agreement. Having thrown the people ot 
the city somewhat ofif their guard by his prom- 
ise, he took occasion to advance stealthily 
to one of the gates at dead of night, and there. 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 289 

the gate being opened to him by a confederate 
within the city, he began to march his sol- 
diers in. The troops were ordered to keep 
silence, and to step noiselessly, and thus a 
large body of Gauls gained admission, and 
posted themselves in the market place with- 
out alarming or awakening the inhabitants. 
To render this story credible, we must sup- 
pose that the sentinels and guards had been 
previously gained over to Pyrrhus's side. 

The foot-soldiers having thus made theii 
entrance into the city, Pyrrhus undertook 
next to pass some of his elephants in. It 
was found, however, when they approached 
the gate, that they could not enter without 
having the towers first removed from their 
backs, as the gates were only high enough to 
admit the animals alone. The soldiers ac- 
cordingly proceeded to take off the towers, 
and then the elephants were led in. The tow- 
ers were then to be replaced. Th work of 
taking down the towers, and then of putting 
them on again, which all had to be done in 
the dark, was attended with great difficulty 
and delay, and so much noise was unavoid- 
ably made in the operation, that at length the 
people in the surrounding houses took the 
alarm, and in a very short period the whole 



290 PYRRHUS. 

city was aroused. Eager gatherings were im- 
mediately held in all quarters. Pyrrhus press- 
ed forward with all haste into the market- 
place, and posted himself there, arranging his 
elephants, his horse, and his foot in the man- 
ner best adapted to protect them from any at- 
tack that might be made. The people of Ar- 
gos crowded into the citadel, and sent out im- 
mediately to Antigonus to come in to their 
aid. He at once put his camp in motion, and, 
advancing towar4 the walls with the main 
body, he sent in some powerful detachments 
of troops to co-operate with the inhabitants 
of the city. All these scenes occurring in the 
midst of the darkness of the night, the people 
having been awakened from their sleep by a 
sudden alarm, were attended, of course, by a 
dreadful panic and confusion; and, to com- 
plete the complication of horrors, Areus, with 
the Spartan army under his command, who 
had followed Pyrrhus in his approach to the 
city, and had been closely watching his move- 
ments ever since he had arrived, now burst in 
through the gates, and attacked the troops 
of his hated enemy in the streets, in the mar- 
ket-place, and wherever he could find them, 
with shouts, outcries, and imprecations, that 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 2^1 

made the whole city one vv^idespread scene of 
unutterable confusion and terror. 

The general confusion and terror, however, 
produced by the assaults of the Spartans were 
the only results that immediately followed 
them, for the troops soon found that no real 
progress could be made, and no advantage 
gained by this nocturnal warfare. The sol- 
diers could not distinguish friends from foes. 
They could not see or hear their commander, 
or act with any concert or in any order. They 
were scattered about, and lost their way in 
narrow streets, or fell into drains or sewers, 
and all attempts on the part of the officers to 
rally them, or to control them in any way, 
were unavailing. At length, by common con- 
sent, all parties desisted from fighting, and 
awaited — all in an awful condition of uncer- 
tainty and suspense— the coming of the dawn. 

Pyrrhus, as the objects that were around 
him were brought gradually into view by the 
gray light of the morning, was alarmed at 
seeing that the walls of the citadel were cov- 
ered with armed men, and at observing var- 
ious other indications, by which he was warn- 
ed that there was a very powerful force op- 
posed to him within the city. As the light in- 
creased, and brought the boundaries of the 



292 PYRRHUS. 

market-place where he posted himself into 
view, and revealed the various images and 
figures which had been placed there to adorn 
it, he was struck with consternation at the 
sight of one of the groups, as the outlines of 
it slowly made themselves visible. It was a 
piece of statuary, in bronze, representing a 
combat between a wolf and a bull. In seems 
that in former times some oracle or diviner 
had forewarned him that when he should see 
a wolf encountering a bull, lie might know 
that the hour of his death was near. Of 
course, he had supposed that such a spectacle, 
if it was indeed true that he was ever destined 
to see it, could only be expected to appear in 
some secluded forest, or in some wide and un- 
frequented spot among the mountains. Per* 
haps, indeed, he paid very little attention to 
the prophecy, and never expected that it would 
be literally realized. When, however, this 
group in bronze came out to view, it remind- 
ed him of the oracle, and the dreadful fore- 
boding which its appearance awakened, con- 
nected with the anxiety and alarm naturally 
inspired 'by the situation in which he was 
placed, filled him with consternation. He 
feared tlhat his hour was come, and his only 
solicitude now was to make good his retreat 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 293 

Qs soon as possible from the fatal dangers by 
which he seemed to be surrounded. 

But how to escape was the difficulty. The 
gate was narrow, the body of troops with him 
was large, and he knew that in attempting to 
retire he would be attacked from all the streets 
in the vicinity, and from the tops of the houses 
and walls, and that his column would inevita- 
bly be thrown into disorder, and would choke 
up the gateway and render it wholly impass- 
able, through their eagerness to escape and the 
confusion that would ensue. He accordingly 
sent out a messenger to his son Helenus, who 
remained all the time in command of the main 
body of the army, without the walls, directing 
him to come forward with all his force, and 
break down a portion of the wall adjoining the 
gateway, so as to open a free egress for his 
troops in their retreat from the city. He re- 
mained himself at his position in the market- 
place until time had dapsed sufficient, as he 
judged, for Helenus to have received his or- 
ders, and to have reached the gate in the exe- 
cution of them-; and then, being by this time 
hard pressed by his enemies, who began early 
in the morning to attack him in all quarters, 
he put his troops in motion, and in the midst 
of a scene of sihouts, uproar, terror, and confu- 



294 PYRRHUS. 

sion indescribable, the whole body moved on 
toward the gate, expecting that, by the time 
they arrived there, Ilelenus would have ac- 
complished his work, and that they should 
find a broad opening made, which would allow 
of an easy egress. Instead of this, however, 
they found, before they reached the gate, tha: 
the streets before them were entirely blocked 
up with an immense concourse of soldiers thai 
were pouring tumultuously into the city. It 
seems that lielenus had, in some way or other, 
misunderstood the orders, and supposed tha«; 
he was directed to enter the city himsdf, to 
re-enforce his father within the walls. The 
shock of the encounter produced by these op- 
posing currents redoubled the confusion. Pyr- 
rhus, and the officers with him, shouted out 
orders to the advancing soldiers of Helenus 
to fall back ; but in fche midst of the indescrib- 
able din and confusion that prevailed, no 
vociferation, however loud, could be heard. 
Nor, if the orders had been heard, could they 
have been obeyed, for the van of the coming 
column was urged forward irresistably by the 
pressure of those behind, and the panic which 
by this time prevailed among the troops of 
Pyrrhus's command made them frantic and 
furious in their efforts to force their way on- 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 295 

ward and get out of the city. An awful scene 
of confusion and destruction ensued. Men 
pressed and trampled each other to death, and 
the air was filled with shrieks and crys of pain 
and terror. The destruction of life was very 
great, but it was produced almost entirely by 
the pressure and the confusion — men, horses, 
and elephants being mingled inextricably to- 
gether in one vast living mass, which seemed, 
to those who looked down upon it from above, 
to be writthing and struggling in the most hor- 
rible contortions. There was no fighting, for 
there was no room for any one to strike a 
blow. If a man drew his sword, or raised his 
pike, his arms were caught and pinioned im- 
mediately by the pressure around him, and 
he found himself utterly helpless. The injury, 
therefore, that was done, was the result al- 
most altogether of the pressure and the strug- 
gles, and of the trampling of the elephants 
and the horses upon the men, and of the men 
upon each other. 

The elephants added greatly to the confu- 
sion of the scene. One of the largest in the 
troop fell in the gateway, and lay there for 
some time on his side, una'ble to rise, and 
braying in a terrific manner. Another was ex- 
cited to a phrensy by the loss of his master, 



296 PYRRHUS. 

who had fallen off from his <head, wounded by 
a dart or a spear. The faithful animal turned 
around to save him. With his trunk he threw 
the men who were in the way off to the 
right hand and the left, and then, taking up 
the body of 'his master with his" trunk, he 
placed it carefully upon his tusks^ and then 
attempted to force a passage through the 
crowd, trampling down all who came m his 
way. History has awarded to this elephant 
a distinction which he well deserved, by re- 
cording his name. It was Nicon. 

All this time Pyrrhus was near the rear of 
his troops, and thus was in some degree re- 
moved from the greatest severity of the pres- 
sure. He turned and fought, from time to 
time, with those who were pressing upon his 
line from behind. As the danger became more 
imminent, he took out from his helmet the 
plume by which he was distinguished from the 
other generals, and gave it to a friend who 
was near ihim, in order that he might be a less 
conspicuous mark for the s'hafts of his en- 
emies. The combats, however, between his 
party and those who were harassing them 
in the rear were still continued ; and at length, 
in one of them, a man of Argos woun3e3 fiim, 
by throwing a javelin with so much force that 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 297 

the point of it passed ithrough his breast-plate 
and entered his side. The wound was not 
dangerous, but it had the effect of maddening 
Pyrrhus against the man w^ho had inflicted it, 
and he turned upon him with great fury, as 
if he were intending to annihilate him at a 
blow. He would very probably h'ave killed 
the Greek, had it not been that just at that 
moment the mother of the man, by a very 
singular coincidence, was surveying the scene 
from a house-top which overlooked the street 
where these evenits were occurring. She im- 
mediately seized a heavy tile from the roof, 
and with all her strength hurled it into the 
street upon Pyrrhus just as he was striking 
the blow. The tile came down upon his head, 
and, striking the helmet heavily, it carried 
both helmet and head down together, and 
crushed the lower vertebrse of the neck at 
their junction with the spine. 

Pyrrhus dropped the reins from his hands, 
and fell over from his horse heavily to the 
ground. It happened that no one knew him 
who saw him fall, for so great had been the 
crowd and confusion, that Pyrrhus had got 
separated from his immediate friends. Those 
who were near him, therefore, when he fell, 
pressed on, intent only on their own safety, 



298 PYRRHUS. 

and left him where he lay. At last a soldier 
of Antigonus's army, named Zopyrus, com- 
ing up to the spot, accompanied by several 
others of his party, looked upon the wounded 
man and recognized him as Pyrrhus. They 
lifted him up, and dragged him out of the 
street to a portico that was near. Zopyrus 
drew his sword, and raised it to cut off his 
prisoner's head. At this instant Pyrrhus 
opened his eyes, and rolled them up with such 
a horrid expression as to strike Zopyrus with 
terror. His arm consequently faltered in 
dealing the blow, so that he missed his aim, 
and instead of striking the neck, only wound- 
ed and mutilated the mouth and chin. He 
was obliged to repeat the stroke again and 
again before the neck was sundered. At 
length, however, the dreadful deed was done, 
and the head was severed from the body. 

Very soon after this, Halcyoncus, the son 
of Antigonus, rode up to the spot, and after 
learning what had ccCurred, he asked the sol- 
diers to lift up the head to him, that he might 
look at it a moment. As soon as it was with- 
in his reach, he seized it and rode away, in 
order to carry it to his father. He found his 
father sitting with his friends, and threw down 
the head at his feet, as a trophy which he sup- 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN. 299 

posed his father would rejoice to see. Anti- 
gonus was, however, in fact, extremely shock- 
ed at the spectacle. He reproved his son in 
the severest terms for his brutality, and then, 
sending for the mutilated trunk, he gave to 
the whole body an honorable burial. 

That Pyrrhus was a man of great native 
power of mind, and of extraordinary capacity 
as a military leader, no one can deny. His ca- 
pacity and genius were in fact so great, as to 
make him, perhaps, the most conspicuous ex- 
ample that the world has produced of the 
manner in which the highest power and the 
noblest opportunities may be wasted and 
thrown away. He accomplished nothing. 
He had no plan, no aim, no object, but obey- 
ed every momentary impulse, and entered, 
without thought and without calculation, into 
any scheme that chance, or the ambitious de- 
signs of others, might lay before him. He 
succeeded in creating a vast deal of turmoil 
and war, in killing an imimense number of 
men, and in conquering, though temporarily 
and to no purpose, a great many kingdoms. 
It was mischief, and only mischief, that he 
did; and though the scale on which he per- 
petrated mischief was great, his fickleness and 
vacillation deprived it altogether of the dig- 



300 



PYRRHUS. 



nity of greatness. His crimes against the 
peace and welfare of mankind did not arise 
from any peculiar depravity ; he was, on the 
contrary, naturally of a noble and generous 
spirit, though in process of time, through the 




Death of Pyrrhus. 
reaction of his conduct upon his heart, these 
good qualities almost entirely disappeared. 
Still, he seems never really to have wished 
mankind ill. He perpetrated his crimes 
against them thoughtlessly, merely for the 
purpose of showing what great things he 
could do. 



AIvTEfs^US' 



Young People's Library. 



Price, 50 Cents Each. 



ROBINSON CRUSOE : His Life and Strange Surprising 
Adventures. With 70 beautiful illustrations by Walter 
Paget. Arranged for young readers. 

*' There exists no work, either of instruction or entertainment, 
which has been more generally read, and universally admired.'* 
— Walter Scott, 

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. With 42 
illustrations by John Tenniel. 

' This is Carroll's immortal story." — AthencBu. 
" The most dehghtful of children's stories. Elegant a..- • 'ieli- 
cious nonsense." — Saturday Review. 

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS AND WHAT 
ALICE FOUND THERE. (A companion to Alice in 
Wonderland.) With 50 illustrations by John Tenniel. 

' Not a whit inferior to its predecessor in grand extravagance of 
imagination, and delicious allegorical nonsense." — Quarterly 
Reviezv, 

BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. With 50 full-page 
and text illustrations. 

Pilgrim's Progress is the most popular story book in the 
world. With the exception of the Bible it has been translated into 
more languages than any other book ever printed. 

A CHILD'S STORY OF THE BIBLE. With 72 full-page 
illustrations. 

Tells in simple language and in a form fitted for the hands of 
the younger members of the Christian flock, the tal^ of God's 
dealings with his Chos n People under the Old Dispensation, 
with its foreshcdowings of the coming of that Messiah who was 
to make all mankind one fold under one Shepherd. 



ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE* S LIBRAkY. 



A CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. With 49 illustrations. 

God has implanted in the infant's heart a desire to hear of Jesus, 
and children are early attracted and sweetly riveted by the won- 
derful Story of the Master from the Manger to the Throne. 

In this little book we have brought together from Scripture every 
incident, expression and description within the verge of their com- 
prehension, in the effort to weave them into a memorial garland of 
their Saviour. 

THE FABLES OF ^.SOP. Compiled from the best ac- 
cepted sources. With 62 illustrations. 

The fables of y^sop are among the very earliest compositions of 
this kind, and probably have never been surpassed for point and 
brevity, as well as for the practical good sense they display. In 
their grotesque grace, in their quaint humor, in their trust in the 
simpler virtues, in their insight into the cruder vices, in their inno- 
cence of the fact of sex, y^sop's Fables are as little children — and 
for that reason will ever find a home in the heaven of little chil- 
dren's souls. 

THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, or the Adventures of 
a Shipwrecked Family on an Uninhabited Island. With 
50 illustrations. 

A remarkable tale of adventure that will interest the boys and 
girls. The father of the family tells the tale and the vicissitudes 
through which he and his wife and children pass, the wonderful 
discoveries they make, and the dangers they encounter. It is a 
standard work of adventure that has the favor of all who have 
read it. 

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY 
OF AMERICA. With 70 illustrations. 

It is the duty of every American lad to know the story of Chris- 
topher Columbus. In this book is depicted the story of his life 
and struggles ; of his persistent solicitations at the courts of Eu- 
rope, and his contemptuous receptions by the learned Geographical 
Councils, until his final employment by Queen Isabella. Records 
the day-by-day journeyings while he was pursuing his aim and his 
perilous way over the shoreless ocean, until he "gave to Spain a 
New World." Shows his progress through Spain on the occasion 
of his first return, when he was received with rapturous demon- 
strations and more than regal homage. His displacement by the 



ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



Odjeas, Ovandos and Bobadilas ; his last return in chains, and the 
story of his death in poverty and neglect. 

THE STORY OF EXPLORATION AND DISCOVERY 
IN AFRICA. With 80 illustrations. 

Records the adventures, privations, sufferings, trials, dangers 
and discoveries in developing the **Dark Continent," from the 
early days of Bruce and Mungo Park down to Livingstone and 
Stanley and the heroes of our own times. 

The reader becomes carried away by conflicting emotions of 
wonder and sympathy, and feels compelled to pursue the story, 
which he cannot lay down. No present can be more acceptable 
than such a volume as this, where courage, intrepidity, resource 
and devotion are so pleasantly mingled. It is very fully illustra- 
ted with pictures worthy of the book. 

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS INTO SOME REMOTE RE- 
GIONS OF THE WORLD. With 50 illustrations. 

In description, even of the most common-place things, his power 
is often perfectly marvellous. Macaulay says of Swift : " Under 
a plain garb and ungainly deportment were concealed some of the 
choicest gifts that ever have been bestowed on any of the children 
of men — rare powers of observation, brilliant art, grotesque inven- 
tion, humor of the mo^t austere flavor, yet exquisitely delicious, 
eloquence singularly pure, manly and perspicuous,' ' 

MOTHER GOOSE'S RHYMES, JINGLES AND FAIRY 
TALES. With 300 illustrations. 

** In this edition an excellent choice has been made from the 
standard fiction cf the little ones. The abundant pictures are well- 
drawn and graceful, the effect frequently striking and always deco- 
rative . " — Critic. 

** Only to see the book is to wish to give it to every child one 
knows," — Queen. 

LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED 
STATES. Compiled from authoritative sources. With 
portraits of the Presidents \ and also of the unsuccessful 
candidates for the office ; as well as the ablest of the 
Cabinet officers. 

This book should be in every home and school library. It tells, 
in an impartial way, the story of the political history of the United 
States, from the first Constitutional convention to the last Presi- 



ALTEMUS YOUNG PEOPLE S LIBRARY. 



dential nominations, it is just the book for intelligent boys, and it 
will help to make them intelligent and patriotic citizens. 

THE STORY OF ADVENTURE IN THE FROZEN 
SEA. With 70 illustrations. Compiled from authorized 
sources. 

We here have brought together the records of the attempts to 
reach the North Pole. Our object being to recall the stories of the 
early voyagers, and to narrate the recent efforts of gallant adven- 
turers of various nationalities to cross the " unknown and inacces- 
ible " threshold ; and to show how much can be accomplished by 
indomitable pluck and steady perseverance. Portraits and numer- 
ous illustrations help the narration. 

ILLUSTRATED NATURAL HISTORY. By the Rev. 
J. G. Wood. With 80 illustrations. 

Wood's Natural History needs no commendation. Its author 
has done more than any other writer to popularize the study. His 
work is known and admired overall the civilized world. The sales 
of his works in England and America have been enormous. The 
illustrations in this edition are entirely new, striking and life-like. 

A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By Charles 
Dickens. With 50 illustrations. 

Dickens grew tired of listening to his children memorizing the 
old fashioned twaddle that went under the name of English his- 
tory. He thereupon wrote a book, in his own peculiarly happy 
style, primarily for the educational advantage of his own children, 
but was prevailed upon to publish the work, and make its use gen- 
eral. Its success was instantaneous and abiding. 

BLACK BEAUTY; The Autobiography of a Horse. By 
Anna Sewell. With 50 illustrations 

This NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION is sure to command attention. 
Wherever children are, whether boys or girls, there this Autobiog- 
raphy should be. It inculcates habits of kindness to all members 
of the animal creation. The literary merit of the book is excellent. 

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS. With 
50 illustrations. Contains the most favorably known of 
the stories. 

The text is somewhat abridged and edited for the young. It 
forms an excellent introduction to those immortal tales which have 
helped so long to keep the weary world young. 



ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 5 

ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES. By Hans Christian An- 
dersen. With 77 illustrations. 

The spirit of high moral teaching, and the delicacy of sentiment, 
feeling and expression that pervade these tales make these won- 
derful creations not only attractive to the young, but equally accept- 
able to those of mature years, who are able to understand their 
real significance and appreciate the depth of their meaning. 

GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES. With 50 illustrations. 

These tales of the Brothers Grimm have carried their names into 
every household of the civilized world. 

The Tales are a wonderful collection, as interesting, from a lit- 
erary point of view, as they are delightful as stories. 

GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR; A History for Youth. By 
Nathaniel Hawthorne. With 60 illustrations. 

The story of America from the landing of the Puritans to the 
acknowledgment without reserve of the Independence of the 
United States, told with all the elegance, simplicity, grace, clear- 
ness and force for which Hawthorne is conspicuously noted. 

FLOWER FABLES. By Louisa May Alcott. With colored 
and plain illustrations. 

A series of very interesting fairy tales by the most charming of 
American story-tellers. 

AUNl' MARTHA'S CORNER CUPBOARD. By Mary 
and Elizabeth Kirby. With 60 illustrations. 

Stories about Tea, Coffee, Sugar, Rice and Chinaware, and 
other accessories of the well-kept Cupboard. A book full of in- 
terest for all the girls and many of the boys, 

WATER-BABIES; A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby. By 
Charles Kingsley. With 94 illustrations. 

** Come read me my riddle, each good little man ; 
If you cannot read it, no grown-up folk can." 

BATTLES OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. By 
Prescott Holmes. With 70 illustrations. 

A graphic ard full history of the Rebellion of the American Col- 
onies from the yoke and oppression of England, with the causes 



ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



that led thereto, and including an account of the second war with 
Great Britain, and the War with Mexico. 

BATTLES OF THE WAR FOR THE UNION. By 
Prescott Holmes. With 80 illustrations. 

A correct and impartial account of the greatest civil war in the 
annals of history. Both of these histories of American wars are 
a necessary part of the education of all intelligent American boys 
and girls. 

YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE WAR WITH 
SPAIN. By Prescott Holmes. With 89 illustrations. 

This history of our war with Spain, in 1898, presents in a plain, 
easy style the splendid achievements of our army and navy, and 
the prominent figures that came into the public view during that 
period. Its glowing descriptions, wealth of anecdote, accuracy of 
statement and profusion of illustration make it a most desirable 
gift-book for young readers. 

HEROES OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. By 
Hartwell James. With 65 illustrations. 

The story of our navy is one of the most brilliant pages in the 
world's history. The sketches and exploits contained in this vol- 
ume cover our entire naval history from the days of the hone.Nt, 
rough sailors of Revolutionary times, with their cutlasses and 
boarding pikes, to the brief war of 1 898, when our superbly ap- 
pointed warships destroyed Spain' s proud cruisers by the merci- 
less accuracy of their fire. 

MILITARY HEROES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
By Hartwell James. With 97 illustrations. 

In this volume the brave lives and heroic deeds of our military 
heroes, from Paul Revere to Lawton, are told in the most captiva- 
ting manner. The material for the work has been gathered from 
the North and the Sou.h aUke. The volume presents all the im- 
portant facts in a manner enabling the young people of our united 
and prosperous land to easily become familiar with the command- 
ing figures that have arisen in our military history. 

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; or Life Among the Lowly. By 
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. With 90 illustrations. 



ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



The unfailing interest in the famous old story suggested the need 
of an edition specially prepared for young readers, and elaborately 
illustrated. This edition completely fills that want. 

SEA KINGS AND NAVAL HEROES. By Hartwell 
James. With 50 illustrations. 

The most famous sea battles of the world, with sketches of the 
lives, enterprises and achievements of men who have become fam- 
ous in naval history. They are stories of brave lives in times of 
trial and danger, charmingly told for young people. 

POOR BOYS' CHANCES. By John Habberton. With 
50 illustrations. 

There is a fascination about the writings of the author of 
** Helen's Babies," from which none can escape. In this charm- 
ing volume, Mr. Habberton tells the boys of America how they 
can attain the highest positions in the land, without the struggles 
and privations endured by poor boys who rose to eminence and 
fame in former times. 

ROMULUS, the Founder of Rome. By Jacob Abbott. 
With 49 illustrations. 

In a plain and connected narrative, the author tells the stories 
of the founder of Rome and his great ancestor, JEuea,s. These 
are of necessity somewhat legendary in character, but are pre- 
sented precisely as they have come down to us from ancient times. 
They are prefaced by an account of the life and inventions of Cad- 
mus, the " Father of the Alphabet," as he is often called. 

CYRUS THE GREAT, the Founder of the Persian Empire. 
By Jacob Abbott. With 40 illustrations. 

For nineteen hundred years, the story of the founder of the an- 
cient Persian empire has been read by every generation of man- 
kind. The story of the life and actions of Cyrus, as told by the 
author, presents vivid pictures of the magnificence of a monarchy 
that rose about five hundred years before the Christian era, and 
rolled on in undisturbed magnitude and glory for many centuries. 

ADVENTURES IN TOYLAND. By Edith King Hull. 
With 70 illustrations by Alice B. Woodward. 

The sayings and doin2:s of the dwellers in toyland, related by 
one of them to a dear little girl. It is a delightful book for chil- 
dren, and admirably illustrated. 



ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



DARIUS THE GREAT, King of the Medes and Persians. 
By Jacob Abbott. With 34 illustrations. 

No great exploits marked the career of this monarch, who was 
at one time the absolute sovereign of nearly one-half of the world. 
He reached his high position by a stratagem, and left behind him 
no strong impressions of personal character, yet, the history of his 
life and reign should be read along with those of Cyrus, Caesar, 
Hannibal and Alexander. 

XERXES THE GREAT, King of Persia. By Jacob Ab- 
bott. With 39 illustrations. 

For ages the name of Xerxes has been associated in the minds 
of men with the idea of the highest attainable human magnificence 
and grandeur. He was the sovereign of the ancient Persian em- 
pire at the height of its prosperity and power. The invasion of 
Greece by the Persian hordes, the battle of Thermopylae, the burn- 
ing of Athens, and the defeat of the Persian galleys at Salamis are 
chapters of thrilling interest. 

THE ADVENTURES OF A BROWNIE. By Miss 
Mulock, author of John Halifax, Gentleman, etc. With 
18 illustrations. 

One of the best of Miss Murlock's charming stories for children. 
All the situations are amusing and are sure to please youthful 
readers. 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT, King of Macedon. By 
Jacob Abbott. With 51 illustrations. 

Born heir to the throne of Macedon, a country on the confines 
of Eurqpe and Asia, Alexander crowded into a brief career of 
twelve years a brilliant series of exploits. The readers of to-day 
will find pleasure and profit in the history of Alexander the Great, 
a potentate before whom ambassadors and princes from nearly all 
the nations of the earth bowed in humility. 

PYRRHUS, King of Epirus. By Jacob Abbott. With 45 
- illustrations. 

The story of Pyrrhus is one of the ancient narratives which has 
been told and retold for many centuries in the literature, eloquence 
and poetry of all civilized nations. While possessed of extraordi- 
nary ability as a military leader, Pyrrhus actually accomplished 
nothing, but did mischief on a gigantic scale. He was naturally 



ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



of a noble and generous spirit, but only succeded in perpetrating 
crimes against the peace and welfare of mankind. 

HANNIBAL, the Carthaginian. By Jacob Abbott. With 
37 illustrations. 

Hannibal's distinction as a warrior was gained during the des- 
perate contests between Rome and Carthage, known as the Punic 
wars. Entering the scene when his country was engaged in peace- 
ful traffic with the various countries of the known world, he turned 
its energies into military aggression, conquest and war, becoming 
himself one of the greatest military heroes the world has ever 
known. 

MIXED PICKLES. By Mrs. E. M. Field. With 31 illus- 
trations by T. Pym. 

A remarkably entertaining story for young people. The reader 
is introduced to a charming little girl whose mishaps while trying 
to do good are very appropriately termed '* Mixed Pickles.' ' 

JULIUS CtESAR, the Roman Conqueror. By Jacob Ab- 
bott. With 44 illustrations. 

The life and actions of Julius Caesar embrace a period in Roman 
history beginning with the civil wars of Marius and Sylla and end- 
ing with the tragic death of Caesar Imperator. The work is an 
accurate historical account of the life and times of one of the great 
military figures in history, in fact, it is history itself, and as such is 
especially commended to the readers of the present generation. 

ALFRED THE GREAT, of England. By Jacob Abbott. 
With 40 illustrations. 

In a certain sense, Alfred appears in history as the founder of 
the British monarchy ; his predecessors having governed more like 
savage chieftains than English kings. The work has a special 
value for young readers, for the character of Alfred was that of an 
honest, conscientious and far-seeing statesman. The romantic 
story of Godwin furnishes the concluding chapter of the volume. 

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, of England. By Jacob 
Abbott. With 43 illustrations. 

The life and times of William of Normandy have always been a 
fruitful theme for the historian. War and pillage and conquest 
"were at least a part of the everyday business of men in both Eng- 



lO ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 

land and France : and the story of William as told by the author 
of this volume makes some of the most fascinating page^ in his- 
tory. It is especially delightful to young readers. 

HERNANDO CORTEZ, the Conqueror of Mexico. By 
Jacob Abbott. With 30 illustrations. 

in this volume the author gives vivid pictures of the wild and 
adventurous career of Cortez and his companions in the conquest 
of Mexico. Many good motives were united with those of ques- 
tionable character, in the prosecution of his enterprise, but in 
those days it was a maUer of national ambiUon to enlarge the 
boundaries of nations and to extend their commerce at any cost. 
The career of Cortez is one of absorbing interest. 

THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE. By Miss Mulock. With 
24 illustrations. 

The author styles it "A Parable for Old and Young." It is in her 
happiest vein and delightfully interesting, especially to youthful 
readers. 

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. By Jacob Abbott. With 
45 illustrations. 

The story of Mary Stuart holds a prominent place in the present 
series of historical narrations. It has had many tellings, for the 
melancholy story of the unfortunate queen has always held a high 
place in the estimation of successive generations of readers. Her 
story is full of romance and pathos, and the reader is carried along 
by conflicting emotions of wonder and sympathy. 

QUEEN ELIZABETH, of England. By Jacob Abbott. 
With 49 illustrations. 

In strong contrast to the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, is that 
of Elizabeth, Queen of England. They were cousins, yet im- 
placable foes. Elizabeth's reign was in many ways a glorious one, 
and her successes gained her the applause of the world. The 
stirring tales of Drake, Hawkins and other famous mariners of 
her lime have been incorporated into the story of Elizabeth's life 
and reign. 

KING CHARLES THE FIRST, of England. By Jacob 
Abbott. With 41 illustrations. 

The wel] -known figures in the stormy reign of Charles T. are 
brought forward in this narrative of his life and times. It is his- 
tory told in the most fascinating manner, and embraces the early 



ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. IT 

life of Charles ; the court of James I.; struggles between Charles 
and the Parliament ; the Civil war ; the trial and execution of the 
king. The narrative is impartial and holds the attention of the 
reader. 

KING CHARLES THE SECOND, of England. By Jacob 
Abbott. With 3S illustrations. 

Beginning with his infancy, the life of the ** Merry Monarch " 
is related in the author's inimitable style. His reign was signal- 
ized by many disastrous events, besides those that related to his 
personal troubles and embarrassments. There were unfortunate 
wars ; naval defeats ; dangerous and disgraceful plots and con- 
spiracies. Trobule sat very lightly on the shoulders of Charles II., 
however, and the cares of state were easily forgotten in the society 
of his court and dogs. 

THE SLEEPY KING. By Aubrey Hopwood and Seymour 
Hicks. With 77 illustrations by Maud Trelawney. 

A charmingly-told Fairy Tale, full of delight and entertain- 
ment. The illustrations are original and striking, adding greatly 
to the interest of the text. 

MARIA ANTOINETTE, Queen of France. By John S. C. 
Abbott. With 42 illustrations. 

The tragedy of Maria Antoinette is one of the most mournful in 
the history of the world. '* Her beauty dazzled the whole king- 
dom," says Lamartine. Her lofty and unbending spirit under 
unspeakable indignities and atrocities, enlists and holds the sympa- 
thies of the readers of to-day, as it has done in the past. 

MADAME ROLAND, A Heroine of the French Revolution. 
By Jacob Abbott. With 42 illustrations. 

The French Revolution developed few, if any characters more 
worthy of notice than that of Madame Roland. The absence of 
playmates, in her youth, inspired her with an insatiate thirst for 
knowledge, and books became her constant companions in every 
unoccupied hour. She fell a martyr to the tyrants of the French 
Revolution, but left behind her a career full of instruction that 
never fails to impress itself upon the reader. 

JOSEPHINE, Empress of France. By Jacob Abbott. With 
40 illustrations. 



12 ALTEMUS* YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 

Maria Antoinette beheld the dawn of the French Revolution ; 
Madame Roland perished under the lurid glare of its high noon ; 
Josephine saw it fade into darkness. She has been called the 
** Star of Napoleon ; " and it is certain that she added luster to 
his brilliance, and that her persuasive influence was often exerted 
to win a friend or disarm an adversary. The lives of the Empress 
Josephine, of Maria Antoinette, and of Madame Roland are 
especially commended to young lady readers. 

TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE. By Charles and Mary 
Lamb. With 80 illustrations. 

The text is somewhat abridged and edited for young people, but 
a clear and definite outline of each play is presented. Such episodes 
or incidental sketches of character as are not absolutely necessary 
to the development of ^the tales are omitted, while the many moral 
lessons that lie in Shakespeare's plays and make them valuable in 
the training of the young are retained. The book is winnmg, help- 
ful and an effectual guide to the * * inner shrine ' ' of the great 
dramatist. 

MAKERS OF AMERICA. By Hartwell James. With 75 
illustrations. 

This \olume contains attractive and suggestive sketches of the 
lives and deeds of men who illustrated some special phase in the 
political, religious or social life of our country, from its settlem' nt 
to the close of the eighteenth century. It affords an opportunity 
for young readers to become easily familiar with these characters 
and their historical relations to the building of our Republic. An 
account of the discovery of America prefaces the work. 

A WONDER BOOK FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. By 
Nathaniel Hawthorne. With 50 illustrations. 

In this volume the genius of Hawthorne has shaped anew 
wonder tales that have been hallowed by an antiquity of two or 
three thousand years. Seeming " never to have been made " they 
are legitimate subjects for every age to clothe with its own fancy 
as to manners and sentiment, and its own views of morality. The 
volume has a charm fo old and young alike, for the author has 
not thought it necessary to ** write downward " in order to meet 
the comprehension of children. 



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